Mystery Romulea
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 21 Feb 2004 07:58:26 PST)

Dear Tony,

Thanks for adding your picture to the wiki. It does indeed look like mine.
Is it blooming right now? Brian Mathew in his book, The Smaller Bulbs,
states: "The characteristic features (of R. bulbocodium) are that the
stigma overtops the stamens considerably and that the inner of the two
bracts is a papery brown, not green." My flowers don't fulfill either of
these. Do yours? It's hard to tell from the angle of your picture. The
picture I added to the wiki of the R. bulbocodium I got from Jane shows the
stigma overtopping the stamens.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/files/…

But perhaps these features aren't considered important any more? This book
was written in 1987 and the thinking could be really different now. Do any
of you have a Flora of Europe that might help me figure out what I should
be looking for? I suppose it could be a hybrid and all bets are off. As you
say it does grow well.

Here's what Mathew says about Romulea bulbocodium which sounds a bit like
your picture:
"The flowers are white or very pale lilac, 1.0-1.5cm long with a pointed
perianth segments. The inner bract is membraneous, spotted brown, and the
style is overtopped by the stamens." How big is your flower and what are
the bracts like?

He also says, "R. rollii is very similar and differs mainly in having very
long thread-like leaves up to 30 cm. long."

Mary Sue