Lachenalia
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 10 Feb 2007 07:13:23 PST)

Hi,

I've added some more pictures to the Lachenalia pages from photos from
Cameron McMaster, my husband, and myself and some of Don Journet's text
about some of the species he thought were of interest. I don't have
pictures of all of the ones he described, but perhaps in time someone will
add pictures if they have them.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
has new habitat pictures of Lachenalia carnosa from Namaqualand showing it
growing in the rocks with nicely spotted leaves, the hairy leaves of
Lachenalia comptonii, some habitat pictures of L. contaminata from Cameron
and a picture from me of the leaves which are very different from most of
the species, and habitat pictures of Lachenalia hirta from Namaqualand. We
did take a picture of the whole plant, but it just gets lost in the
background so there is one of the interesting hairy single leaf next to
some Oxalis leaves and one of the flowers. This is probably another one I
couldn't grow because it is from such a dry area, but I thought it very
charming when we saw it.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
has new pictures of L. mathewsii, habitat pictures from Cameron of L.
mutabilis, close ups from Cameron of L. nervosa flowers, another picture of
the correctly named L. obscura from Middelpos from Cameron, a picture of L.
orchioides which is a species we saw a lot of in the wild from Cameron,
additional pictures of L. pallida, L. peersii from Cameron, and a habitat
picture and seed pods of L. pusilla from Cameron.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
has an additional picture of L. reflexa showing the leaves. This is one Don
recommended because of extended blooming in his plants and Mark Mazer
suggests can be pesty. I added some habitat pictures of L. rosea from
Cameron. I have some plants I grow from seed from Gordon Summerfield that
have blue-green coloring in the flowers and I've not sure they are
correctly identified, but haven't sat down with the key so I didn't add
them. I added a couple more pictures of L. sargeantii from Cameron so we
could illustrate the habitat they grow in. It's really amazing; it look
like post fire which is when he wrote they usually bloom. There is a
picture of L. thomasiae and one of L. trichophylla Bob took at Kirstenbosch
in 2003. It was taken behind the protective glass so isn't very clear so
would be happy to replace it with any picture anyone else has. But this one
is so different it needed to be illustrated. I also added pictures of L.
unicolor from my garden and from Ramskop Nature Reserve, the garden at
Clanwilliam in South Africa. This is a planted garden, but they grow
species that are local and both times we visited it, years apart we enjoyed
walking on the paths and finding treasures, sometimes identified and
sometimes not. Finally there are pictures of L. unifolia which is a bit
like L. hirta, but the leaves are different and L. youngii from Cameron.

I still have a few more pictures to add from our trip of species we saw in
Nieuwoudtville (L. elegans I think) and on Lion's Head (L. orchioides
glaucina) and maybe some of those masses of hybrids we saw planted in the
ground at Nieuwoudtville, but hopefully all of you who didn't know much
about Lachenalia know a little more now.

Mary Sue