Scilla, Ledebouria and Unknown
Bonsaigai37@aol.com (Sun, 07 Mar 2004 06:04:55 PST)

Greetings All
I have this little quandry about Scilla and Ledebouria. How different in
floral structure are they? After seeing L. galpinii, L. socialis, L. revoluta,
L. ovatifolia floral structures, the difference is becoming a cloudy to me.
Any good papers on the topic? How about Flintoff or Slade? Gentlemen, do you
have any suggestions?

Also, I'm trying to key a small unknown from Africa. It came to me through
Mike Massara and he was unsure of its ID. It is definitely Hyacinthaceae.
From there, he thought it may be Drimia, Drimiopsis... something like that. It
is very small, bulb 2cm diameter, Bowiea-like translucence and tunic, leaves 3
cm long/ 2mm wide, ciliate margins, infloresense ~16 cm, many flowered (>30)
raceme, pedicle 6-8 mm, each flower subtended by a distinct bract which is
slightly shorter than the pedicle at flowering (although it sheaths each flower on
the infloresence initially). [At this point I wish I had a digital camera...
I seem to be working on the thousand words part of the saying...] Flowers,
white, all parts in 6, outer tepals blush slightly pink (underside), green
keels.

I'm still waiting for it to open. It bloomed last summer and now again under
artificial lighting. If I could get it into a genus at this point, I'd be
(somewhat) content. Whatever it is, it is a great little miniature pot plant.
Easy care - good drainage, lots of light and its happy. It may be a bit
stretchy due to the artificial lighting system. If it produces seed, I'll be sure
to get it around.

Be well and best growing
Michael Loos