I've mentioned several times that the autumnal crocus are late here this year. There are two stocks of Crocus goulimyi growing in a raised bed; one has the typical color, the other is a white-flowered form. This white-flowered form was received under the name Crocus goulimyi albus, and I've often wondered if it is identical to the one known as 'Mani White'. The white-flowered form is in advance of the typically colored form. Here's what odd this year: in both forms, what I take to be the prophyll extends up out of the ground for, in the case of the white-flowered form, several inches. It looks like a pale green almost translucent empty tube. There is something inside and at the base of this tube - developing flowers, I hope. Has anyone else ever seen this? There is something very familiar looking about it, but I can't place it. There is some other plant which also sometimes produces long, pale green, initially empty spathes like this: Ornithogalum umbellatum maybe? Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where my memory banks are temporarily as empty as those spathes.