Ipheion/Tristagma 'Rolf Fiedler'
Lee Poulsen (Fri, 13 Apr 2007 12:39:56 PDT)

On Apr 12, 2007, at 2:57 PM, totototo@telus.net wrote:

I've seen this name given before. What are the arguments for placing
'Rolf Fiedler' in the genus Tristagma rather than in Ipheion? Both
its bulbs, leaves, and flowers are so similar to I. uniflorum that
it's difficult to distinguish until the flowers open. I would think
that these two are what I would call sister species. Otherwise, I
would wonder why I. uniflorum isn't also place in the genus Tristagma.

More generally, I thought Tristagma was mostly a Chilean/Andean
Argentine genus that looks very similar to Ipheions. I know I'm going
out on a limb here, but just as Ravenna is claiming (I believe) that
Rhodophiala bifida and related Argentine/Uruguayan species shouldn't
be in the same genus as the Chilean and Andean Argentine Rhodophialas
(which I tend to agree with not that I've seen and grown some of
both), I think the Chilean and Andean Tristagmas ought to be in a
different (but related?) genus to all the Ipheions including 'Rolf
Fiedler'. The one thing that seems to tie them together more closely
is that despite having a mainly wet warm summer and drier cool winter
on the eastern half of southern South America, both the Ipheions and
the Rhodophiala bifida clan still go dormant during the summer and
grow during the winter as is typical with the mediterranean-climate
Tristagmas and Rhodophialas of the western half of southern South
America (aka Chile) which get no rain in summer at all.

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