Hi Dirk: F. purdyi grows at some considerable distance from the plants that are usually called F. biflora var. roderickii. F. purdyi grows at some altitude, the lowest altitude populations I have ever seen being around 1200-1500' in the inner Coast Ranges of California. They generally grow on rocky serpentine ridges. F. biflora var. roderickii grows in a narrow coastal distribution, never at altitude and very far from any populations of F. purdyi. I can't imagine how this allegation of hybridization between two species that grow so far apart and in such different conditions came about. There are two populations (actually, three but I've never seen the third) of the variant on F. biflora. One grows in only one location in an old cemetery and grows to as tall as eighteen inches, the other is on coastal bluffs in grassland and grows only about four to six inches tall. There are some differences between the two in flower color also. It has been proposed that the tall variant be called F. biflora var. grayana and the short one F. biflora var. roderickii, which would help a great deal with the confusion. Diana ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dirk Wallace" <dirkwallace@bigpond.com> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 3:47 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] Re: Fritillaria flowering > Hi Jane, > > > Like almost every other statement in said book, that is in error. F. > > phaeanthera is an invalid synonym for F. eastwoodiae. > > Thanks for that. > > Would the same be said about their making F. roderickii a synonym of F. > biflora var. grayana? They also state that this species is a naturally > occurring hybrid between F. biflora and F. purdyi. Is this right? Plants of > this species I have raised from Jim and Georgie Robinett seed do not show > that much variation! > > Thanks. > > Regards, > > Dirk > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php