Fritillaria affinis at Point Reyes

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Thu, 07 Jul 2005 15:25:45 PDT
A friend in the UK, David King, just phoned me to direct my attention to a 
short article in the new issue of "The Alpine Gardener," the journal of the 
AGS. The author is Frank Tindall and the subject is Fritillaria affinis 
'Wayne Roderick' and F. affinis var. tristulis. Both are triploid forms 
found in a population at Point Reyes, California.

The two photos with the article show var. tristulis and another plant 
captioned as 'Wayne Roderick', but both David and I think the latter is not 
the plant we grow as 'WR'. David got his plant from Wayne directly, and I 
got mine from a friend who got it from Wayne. Wayne told both of us that 
tristulis is a shorter-growing plant than 'WR'. The plant in the AGS photo 
looks like a substantial, typical F. affinis var. affinis of the medium 
green type, whereas we think of 'WR' as having big, blocky, 
"square-shouldered" flowers and longer tepals than "tristulis".

David asked me if I knew the history of how these two sterile triploid 
clones were named. I don't, so I'm asking all of you, trusting that someone 
knows the full story. If you do, please comment?

The Jepson Manual keeps var. tristulis as a valid name, distinguishing it 
by its more numerous scales (also a characteristic of 'WR') and its 
"scarcely mottled" flowers.

Thanks,
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA




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