Skunk Cabbages again
John Grimshaw (Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:11:33 PDT)
Looking at Graham's pictures I am again impressed by the dark beauty of the
Kew Symplocarpus - I had not realised that this was unusual coloration for
the species, but now I think back to when I saw it the wild in Massachusetts
it was typically green with heavy speckling, not that rich purple-brown
colour. Is the dark form uncommon in the wild?
The authors of The Genera of Araceae are clear that there are only 3 species
in the genus, so the IPNI names should probably be regarded as synonyms.
John Grimshaw
Dr John M. Grimshaw
Sycamore Cottage
Colesbourne
Nr Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL53 9NP
Tel. 01242 870567
COLESBOURNE PARK OPEN DAYS 2007
Easter Monday 9 April, Arboretum Weekend 15-16 September
Gates open 1pm, last entry 4 pm
website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Graham Rice" <garden@tiscali.co.uk>
About a month ago there was an exchange here about skunk cabbage,
Symplocarpus foetidus, and John Grimshaw mentioned the excellent dark
purple form grown at Kew.
Well, I've finally found my slide of it taken in 1975, scanned it and
I've posted it on my blog in a general piece about this plant.
http://transatlanticplantsman.typepad.com/transatl…
And it seems that there may actually be six species, though some
names may by synonyms. Still working on it...