Ipheion sellowianum
Lee Poulsen (Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:22:03 PDT)

On Apr 13, 2007, at 12:01 PM, Tony Avent wrote:

[Now that has got to be one of the funnest coincidences I've
experienced: I had just hit the reply button to Tony's email (above)
when the doorbell rang and there was FedEx with my plant order from
Tony! Talk about service...!]

[Okay, that was weird. While I typed the above sentence an email came
in from FedEx saying that they had delivered my package from Tony. It
was time-stamped at the time just after the driver drove away. I
didn't realize their little scanner/signature machines were linked
wirelessly all the way to generating an email, too. Neat world we
live in, at times.]

Anyway,
I used to think the two were the same species, and the flowers are
almost identical to me. But now that my pots have filled in
completely, the two look different. My N. dialystemon has leaves
that, while narrow, are twice as wide as those of my N. sellowianum.
They are also much flatter. The N. sellowianum leaves are almost
tubular. And looking at my pots full of leaves (flowering is over),
the sensation is kind of like looking at pots full of green
spaghettini noodles (N. sellowianum ) vs. pots full of green angel
hair pasta noodles (N. sellowianum). I can try to take a picture to
show the difference. My N. dialystemon came from Bill Dijk (as well
as from Mary Sue who I think got hers from Bill as well), while my N.
sellowianum came from Diana Chapman/Telos.

I think I've seen a few seed pods now and then in the past, although
rarely. I'll make an effort to check from now on.

--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USA, USDA Zone 10a