Romulea Mystery Plant
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 19 Feb 2004 21:51:24 PST)
Dear All,
Since we have a lot of new members of our list, I'd like to refer you to
our Mystery bulb page:
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
There are a lot of pictures on that page that have been there a very long
time. Can anyone help us figure them out?
I have added a mystery Romulea. Recently there was talk of misnamed
pictures on the Internet and I think it is really easy to do if you have a
plant from a trusted source and inadequate reference books to help you sort
out whether the name is correct or not. This Romulea was first grown from
Alpine Garden seed Joyce shared with me under the name Romulea linaresii. I
never questioned it and even put a picture on the wiki labeled this (Ouch!)
But I have since acquired The Smaller Bulbs by Brian Mathew and The World
of Iridaceae (sorry Alberto, but it has information, perhaps wrong, but
more than some of my other books on many irids). In those books I learned
the flower is either 1.5cm long or 2-2.5cm long. Both say it has a violet
throat. Mathew says the inner bract is papery and red spotted and the
stamens overtop the style.
My plants have a orangy yellow throat, the style is even with the stamens
and the inner bract is green with a membranous margin and the flower is
bigger so it's not that.
Since all the R. bulbocodiums have the characteristic that the stigmas
overtop the stamens, it can't be that.
The second batch of seed came from a NARGS seed exchange as Romulea
ramiflora. It looks like the same plant to me and they both started
flowering on the very same day! Mathew describes it as a rather
unattractive tall species with small flowers. This is not a tall species
and the flowers are much bigger than described and I think it is charming.
Innes describes it as having externally greenish-yellow segments, but also
with 3 bright violet longitudinal lines. Mine are greenish-yellow, but no
lines. This book mentions a subsp. gaditana, syn. Romulea gaditana, syn. R.
linaresii var. gaditana, syn. R. ramiflora var gigantea that has bigger
flowers, but the throat is described as pale green and the outer segments
green. Mine are not like that.
Looking on the IBS bulb gallery there is a picture that looks like mine
taken by Dirk Wallace and labeled as R. nivalis. The size is right, the
color is right according to Mathew (violet to lilac with a yellow throat)
and the inner bract is right. But he describes the leaves as stiffly erect
and short and these leaves are neither. My picture doesn't look like Tony
Goode's picture of that species on the wiki. On the IBS site and others
there is a picture of a white flowered plant for this species and Bryan's
Bulbs describes it as white tipped lilac, throat yellow, late spring. Innes
describes this species as yellow throat, segments tipped bluish-violet with
white area below and says it flowers from November to January (which isn't
late spring.) This description sounds like Tony's picture. Phillips and Rix
shows very erect leaves and the outside of the flowers which also look
different.
So, can anyone tell me what this plant really is? Robin, help. It is
obviously making its way around the seed exchanges. It blooms quickly from
seed and has been easy for me to grow. It was already getting pollinated as
my picture shows and this was the first day it was open. I'll probably have
some to share with the BX, but only if I know what it really is.
Thanks for any help.
Mary Sue