Neomarica again

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Sat, 26 May 2007 08:31:14 PDT
Hi,

We've had discussions of Neomarica in the past and Jim Waddick had raised 
the question about the difference between N. gracilis and N. northiana. He 
had an asterisk on one of his posts indicating the walking Iris is a term 
used for one or both of these and it's not clear which. There was a request 
to make a wiki page for this genus and since I don't grow it I asked for 
help with it. Tarcísio Eduardo Raduenz was kind enough to send me some 
pictures of a couple of species and now David Ehrlich has some more 
pictures to add to the wiki of N. northiana. He has emailed me that my 
description of N. northiana as yellow is not accurate so I looked at my 
description on the wiki and for the life of me can't remember where I got 
the information I added. I often try to add information from our group 
posts or from those of the group who write me privately or books that I 
trust, but can't find the reference that led me to write this:

"The pedicels of N. northiana barely if at all exceed the enveloping bract; 
those of N. gracilis are several times as long as this bract. Similarly, 
the peduncles (the stouter stems connecting the whole flowering business to 
the scape) of N. gracilis are long and gracile, while those of N. northiana 
are short,­ barely long enough to move the inflorescence away from the scape. "

So I have taken that description off, but it still leads me to want to know 
how to tell the two species apart. If you look at Google images it 
certainly isn't clear. I've added some descriptions I lifted from The World 
of Iridaceae by Innes, but if would be nice if we could figure out how 
these two are different. If they are often confused in the trade that 
pictures on the net are not going to be a good indication of which is 
which. And many of the pictures just show the flowers and that may not be 
what we need to look at to tell them apart. David's pictures are good this 
way as they show more of the plant.

One of the things about the wiki that makes it so time consuming for me is 
my desire for it to be accurate. So I am always happy for corrections and 
help from others. Anyone have pictures to add of N. gracilis that show not 
only the flowers, but the bracts and leaves and the whole plant? The Innes 
book says the leaves of N. gracils have prominent veins and David's 
pictures of his plants show smooth leaves. But is Innes correct?

Help please.

Mary Sue



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