Moraea classification

Robert Werra robertwerra@sbcglobal.net
Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:15:42 PST
Dear All, First, thank you Mary Sue for putting my
plant images on the wiki. My computer skills are quite
deficient. Regarding moraea grouping, I prefer the
alphabetical method. For reasons unknown, I'm mad
about moraeas and have been growing them in pots in an
amateurish way with unspectacular results for the past
15 yrs. There is a nonbotanical classification that
would be useful to those interested in growing them.
That is fugacious and nonfugacious. Fugacious means
"fleeting." That is- you better come home for lunch if
you want to see my blossom. The blossom opens in the
morning but is dead by nightfall. Some don't even last
that long. This sounds grim, but many are very
worthwhile. To ensure pollination, they send out
repeated blooms every 3-8 days for 3 to 9 weeks. This
makes for repeated pleasant surprises. As Lauw de
Jager points out, they correspond to 3 subgeni of Dr.
Goldblatt. The nonfugacious moraeas send out blossoms
lasting 3-6 days in series for 2-4 weeks. They
correspond to Goldblatt's other 2 subgeni.      On our
wiki they are about half and half. The fugacious are
as follows--M. bipartita,
ciliata,fugax,gawleri,lugubris,macronyx,neglecta,
papillionaceae,polyanthos,tricolor,vegeta, and
vespertina. The nonfugacious are
M.algoensis,aristata,atropunctata,bellendini,calcicola,gigandra,huttoni(a
summer
grower),loubseri,lurida,neopavania,thomasiae,tricuspidata,tripetela,tulbaghensis,unguiculata,
and villosa. I have enjoyed struggling with this
species. Sincerely, Bob Werra    
--- Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> Bob Werra has sent me some CDs of pictures he has
> taken, most of them 
> recently, of some of the flowers in his collection.
> Most of the pictures 
> are of Moraeas, Romuleas, and Gladiolus, but there
> are some pictures he 
> took at the Jepson Prairie of Fritillaria liliaceae
> and some other 
> California Fritillaria species as well. As I have
> time I will be downsizing 
> them and adding them to the wiki. I split up the
> Moraea pages 
> alphabetically as we do want people to find the
> pictures and the first lot 
> I'm announcing are N-Z. Bob has some nice close-ups
> and I've often included 
> a picture of the pot that shows the flowers in
> relation to the leaves. On 
> the link below look for his very nice picture of
> Moraea thomasiae, Moraea 
> tricolor (which I have tried over and over again
> from seed, purchased bulbs 
> and am probably on Tony Avent's three tries and you
> are out), and Moraea 
> tulbaghensis. The close up of that is quite nice
> even if he admitted to 
> cheating a bit. He has sent me some very nice
> pictures of M. neopavonia, 
> now considered to be included in M. tulbaghensis by
> Manning and Goldblatt 
> and illustrated on our wiki by Lyn Edwards. A lot of
> people still keep the 
> old name on their tags since the two are a bit
> different. I'll add pictures 
> of them later.
> 
>
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
> 
> I think this means we can look forward to adding to
> our Calochortus wiki 
> page this summer as Bob grows a lot of them too. How
> many Calochortus 
> venustus pictures do you suppose is too many? That's
> a rhetorical question 
> for those of us who thrill to all the different
> variations of that species 
> just as the fans of Galanthus do to those white and
> green/yellow flowers.
> 
> Mary Sue
> 
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