Schizostylis/Hesperantha a confused genus--TOW
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 20 Feb 2003 22:36:40 PST)

Dear Paul & All,

If you want to get rid of Schizostylis, you just have to create a long
period of drought. I should think in many parts of Australia that would
have happened this year. I was happy to read at last there has been rain in
many areas.

Paul, be sure and look at the corm of Hesperantha falcata when it is
dormant. You may be growing H. cucullata. There is a lot of seed going
around that is misnamed. H. falcata corms are triangular to bell-shaped in
outline, with a horizontal or oblique flat base. H. cucullata corms are
supposed to be rounded, more or less asymmetic, often with one side
slightly flattened. Those descriptions puzzled me for awhile, but all the
ones I had extended slightly down on one side of the bottom and John
Manning said they were all cucullata even though I had seed and corms from
more than one source labeled H. falcata.

I've mentioned this before on other lists, but I ended up with all these
different varieties of H. cucullata (starting with about 5 different
species names.) Charles Hardman seed and bulbs of H. pauciflora are really
H. cucullata. Some are pink on the outside, some brown, and some reddish.
Most open at dusk and are fragrant then and worthy of being brought in to
admire as they do their dance (becoming more reflexed as the night goes on)
and to enjoy their fragrance. We saw some near Nieuwoudtville that opened
early afternoon and was pinkish on the back. I had seed from Wayne Roderick
that looks like this one and it is not fragrant. I really like it and when
we visited Wayne's garden in spring a couple of year's ago it seemed to
have escaped a bit.

I believe there are Hesperanthas in the Drakensberg that Rod and Rachel
sometimes offer seed of. Maybe Rachel will comment. Jim Shields should try
these. They are summer growers. There are a couple of species described as
mountain species in the field guide to wildflowers Kwazulu-Natal and the
Eastern Region that might be hardy.

As long as we are extending the Hesperantha thread a little from
Schizostylis I have to put in a plug for Hesperantha vaginata that is only
found in the reserve in Nieuwoudtville in that doleritic clay growing with
Romulea monadelpha, Bulbinella latifolia var. doleritica, Ixia
rapunculoides, Androcymbium pulchrum. When we were in August 2001 in the
morning you couldn't see it since the flowers were closed, but on returning
in the afternoon it was an awesome sight in yellow and black.

I found an old picture from the past and my wetter garden of Schizostylis
so I added it with all my other Hesperanthas to the wiki Hesperantha page.
I have no idea which one it was.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Thanks for the explanations about dna and how it might sort out the
different cultivars. I do try to keep track of all the changes, but still
would prefer as an admirer of flowers to be able to figure them out by
looking at them.

Mary Sue