Dear All, There hasn't been much response to Alan's Topic of the week, Schizostylis/Hesperantha. I remembered reading about the change from Schizostylis to Hesperantha in an old IBSA Bulletin and have found the reference in Bulletin No. 46 (July 1997): "In NOVON vol 6 no. 3 (1996) Drs Goldblatt and Manning sank Schizostylis coccinea into Hesperantha as Hesperantha coccinea on the grounds that the reversion to a rhizome was no more than an adaptation to a wet habitat and the long tubed red flower was to cater for its pollinator Aeropetes tulbaghia. Both adaptations are not uncommon in the Iridaceae: Ixioideae. There being no other morphological distinction between Schizostylis and Hesperantha, there seems to be no good reason for maintaining a monospecific genus. This is in line with the modern trend to discourage monospecifics which apart from environmental (even if visually obvious) adaptations, do not differ essentially from established and multi-specific genera." I think Jane is correct that for the most part nurseries in the US are staying with the old name however. My Ortho book indicates that Schizostylis can only easily be naturalized in the warmer parts of the U.S: central to southern California, Arizona, south Texas, and the southern sections of other southern states in the U.S. Presumably it can also be grown in Australia. I find this geographical distribution interesting since it includes areas where rain is in winter and summers are dry and areas that are hot and humid with summer rainfall. My experience has been that if Schizostylis (Hesperantha) coccinea is planted in my part of Northern California in an area with regular summer irrigation no doubt closer to its stream bed origins in Eastern South Africa, it thrives and can even be a bit invasive. If however it gets infrequent summer water like most of my garden, it dwindles away. I think it can tolerate winter wet just fine, but doesn't like long dry periods. In my garden it has not adapted back from its rhizome to a corm. It can be quite striking when in bloom and I see it used in irrigated gardens, but I don't have many plants left. Every now and then a remmant from the past surprises me with a bloom. I am sure I had what were cultivars and I am sorry to say I'm not sure I kept track of their names although I think Miss Hegarty was one of them. I confess to knowing very little about how dna is used except that it often leads to plants that I have finally learned to identify being renamed but I am very intrigued with someone thinking they could tell the difference between cultivars using this method. I guess I always assumed that cultivars would all have the same dna as they would be the same species. Alan, do you find any difference in the requirements or hardiness of any of the cultivars you are growing? Do you find they behave differently in any way? What are you looking at when you tell them apart? Who else grows this species? Can we extend it's range from what Ortho predicts? Finally I created a Hesperantha page on the Wiki. I couldn't find any pictures of Schizostylis (Hesperantha coccinea) in my quick search through my photographs although I know I have some. So the photographs I have placed there are winter growing species with corms. Hesperantha erecta and H. cucullata are blooming now for me. http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… Mary Sue