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Message: 12
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:44:08 -0800
From: Mary Sue Ittner
Subject: [pbs] Massonia depressa
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20070128193315.01438c50@mail.mcn.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Recently my Massonia depressa has been blooming for the first
time from
seed sowed fall 2002. I had remembered reading an article about
how this
species was pollinated by rodents (gerbils) at night and the
elaborate
system they had to discover this so I was fascinated to look at
the flowers
on my plant. I added some pictures to the wiki showing the
plant, flowers,
and nectar in a close-up.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

And for those of you who might be interested I found that an
article about
the rodent pollination on the Internet including pictures of the
animals at
work.
http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/88/10/1768/

I'm very fond of the Massonias I grow. I was happy that Massonia
jasminiflora that I was unsuccessful growing from seed (twice),
that I
subsequently purchased from Gordon Summerfield (with all the
proper
documentation) this year is now growing at the right time for my
hemisphere
and one even bloomed. There are pictures of this species on the
wiki from
Cameron McMaster.

Mary Sue