Brodiaea--TOW
Mary Sue Ittner (Mon, 16 Jun 2003 12:13:05 PDT)

Dear All,

I am sorry to be a little late with this introduction for the topic of the
week, but I had company this weekend. This topic finishes the discussion of
the three genera in the Brodiaea complex. We first talked about Triteleia,
then Dichelostemma, and now Brodiaea. Most of the species of these three
are native to California and some of the species are found farther north
and south. I started wanting to know more about them a number of years ago
when I was struggling with the keys in a number of my books and trying to
figure out how to tell them apart. I thought if I did my own key perhaps I
could finally understand them. That has helped and there are now some
species that come really easily for me, but others are still a challenge.
Since I tend to be really long winded as you all have noticed I have
decided to take a page from Uli's book when a number of years ago he
introduced Hippeastrum species on another forum for me. Instead of writing
a very long introduction he wrote something shorter every day.

So here is the first part:
Brodiaea is a genus with sixteen species including four with two
subspecies each restricted to western North America, ranging
geographically from Vancouver, B.C. to Baja California. Brodiaea plants are
produced annually from a corm that also produces 2 to 15 adjacent offset
cormlets in the axils of old leaf bases. Cormlets produce fleshy
contractile roots that disperse the cormlets away from the parent. Once
they are adult sized the production of contractile roots cease. Leaves are
basal, generally 3-5, narrow and grassy, made more so by their inrolled
margins. The flowers are upfacing, often richly colored and waxy. Flowers
have six tepals that are united at the base in a bell- to funnel-shaped
tube in two petal-like whorls with the inner whorl wider. The segments of
the tube often have purple stripes. Flower color is blue, purple, pink, or
white. Sterile stamens, known as staminodes, are often petal-like and
lighter colored than the outer tepals and alternate with three, usually
smaller fertile stamens and are distinctive in each species. Flowers of
Brodiaea are self-incompatible being pollinated by many different
pollinators (bee flies, butterflies, flower beetles, and sweat bees.)
Brodiaea is differentiated from Dichelostemma by a flowering stem that is
generally straight not curved or twisted, an umbel that is typically open,
not dense, and the presence of three sterile stamens instead of crown-like
appendages to the filaments that form a tube outside the anthers. Brodiaea
is differentiated from Triteleia by having only three fertile stamens
instead of 6. This genus has been considered to be a part of many different
families (Amaryllidaceae, Alliaceae, Liliaceae). Recent work is now placing
it in a new family, Themidaceae, which includes other California genera
(Androstephium, Bloomeria, Dichelostemma, Muilla, and Triteleia.)

In later posts I will discuss how I grow them, species commonly in
cultivation, other species and where they are from, and clues for telling
them apart. In the meantime everyone else is free to chime in and I can
prune my offerings if it has already been covered.

Mary Sue