Ipheion sellowianum Genealogy
totototo@telus.net (Sat, 14 Apr 2007 09:50:36 PDT)

I left something important out of my previous message in which I wrote

This refers to the four-petalled form, which is aberrant for a
monocot.

I believe it was Jerry Flintoff who told me many years ago that this
form was also grown by a few gardeners in the Seattle area. Their
plants would not fall into the list given above. As the four-petalled
form is likely a single clone, the genealogy has other, earlier
generations in it and other branches. Jerry also made reference to a
form with the petals in the more normal three-fold arrangement you
would expect in a monocot. [At least that what my failing memory
says! Jerry? Over to you.]

There is no mention of it in Brian Mathews' seminal 1973 "Dwarf
Bulbs" under any name I can find, nor in his 1986 "The Year-round
Bulb Garden", but in his 1987 "The Smaller Bulbs" he refers to it and
credits Alberto Castillo as the donor of his plant. I notice,
however, that he does not mention the unusual arrangement of the
petals in fours.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island