I can think of two reasons why some bulbs in Mediterranean climates flower in the fall. 1. There is less competition for pollinators. there are fewer species that flower in the fall compared to the spring. 2. There is less chance of the pollen being damaged by rain. At least in some parts the rains don't really start with enthusiasm until the winter time. Harold At 09:33 PM 11/3/2005, you wrote: >Dear Julia, > >We welcome you to the PBS list. I enjoyed looking at your web site and am >always supportive of people trying to save wild bulbs. > >Looking at your calendar I was impressed with all the bulbs that flower in >autumn in Crete. The winter rainfall area of South Africa, also with a >Mediterranean climate, has a number of species, especially from the >Amaryllis family, that bloom in fall. I can't think of any bulbs/geophytes >from California that bloom in the fall. There are a few that start in late >winter, but most of them are spring and even early summer bloomers. It has >always seemed to me that at least in the part of the state that I live in >that means they are blooming when the rains have slowed and pollination is >more likely to occur so this would be a helpful thing. So many of my >African bulbs have flowers that can be wiped our by our heavy rains in >January and February. > >I looked at Lee's Mediterranean rainfall graph on the wiki and he includes >Crete. It looks like Crete has more rainfall than Los Angeles. I'm >wondering if it would be comparable to the San Francisco Bay Area. >Certainly it's not as much as I get here. I can't remember if we've ever >speculated why some Mediterranean climate bulbs bloom in the fall. Only >Chile and California have such dry summers so maybe it takes more to wake >them up. Osmani, if you are reading this, do any of your bulbs in Chile >bloom in the fall? > >I'd love to hear any ideas people have about this. > >Mary Sue > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php