Allium scorzonerifolium forms
Antennaria@aol.com (Tue, 21 Oct 2003 20:21:36 PDT)

I grew a form of A. scorzonerifolium var. scorzonerifolium over the past
dozen years, that had a few to a half dozen little bulbils in each inflorescence,
but also had a dozen or more flowers per inflorescence. I never found self
sown seedlings or increased plants from the bulbils which I didn't harvest.
Sadly, after all these years, the plants finally dwindled and I no longer have it.
Fortunately, a friend nearby, still has it growing, and I'll need to get a
piece back. It's a small, low growing, gray-leaved plant with refined yellow
flowers, and pretty even with the few bulbils.

Jane McGary's photo of the non-bulbilliferous variety;
A. scorzonerifolium var. xericiense; can be found at:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

It might be that this allium shows the same variability as the american
Allium canadense. Normally very weedy, with lots of fat, ready-to-roll bulbils,
and sputtering forth one or two miserable white flowers, I have a form of this
species, from two collections in Texas, where there are only 3-4 bulbils in the
inflorescence, and the flower heads are showy and mostly floriferous. One
collection is palest pink, the other is clear white. Thad Howard of Texas,
collected these plants growing amongst millions of normal highly bulbilliferous
plants, and dubbed the plant "forma florosum" (unpublished). Pictures of this
rare floriferous form, and an ornamental red-bulbil form of A. canadense, can be
found at the America Allium page on the PBS Wiki at:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mark McDonough Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States
antennaria@aol.com "New England" USDA Zone 5
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