Max asked about Drimia maritima and its tendency to rise to the surface. Possibly bulbs that "push" themselves out of the soil evolved in situations of highly mobile soils, such as dunes or repeatedly flooded zones, and this strategy keeps the bulb at an optimal level where it will not be buried too deeply and have to expend too much stored energy extending its leaves and scape to the increasingly distant surface. This would apply to Drimia maritima in one of its habitats, coastal dunes, but it also grows in rocky situations that appear quite stable. Because sheep and goats don't eat it, it probably has spread into habitats that would have been occupied by other plants before human activity changed the environment. Other geophytes found in very mobile situations, such as riverbanks and scree, often reproduce vegetatively by stolons or very elongated bulbs (e.g., certain riparian Lilium species). Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA