On 11 Aug 08, at 8:56, David Ehrlich wrote: > Wild triploid? How does it reproduce? By vegetative means, probably the formation of daughter bulbs. AFAIK (as far as I know) this is a fairly common scenario among geophytes. Brodiaea howellii (which has some other name now) occurs only at one site on Vancouver Island, according to my botanical friends. I collected a few tiny bulbs from that site many years ago and (foolishly, as it happened) planted them in a raised bulb bed. Over the years, very few flower stems have formed, none have set seed, but underground the soil is filled for several feet in all directions with offsets formed at the ends of stolons or rhizomes. No DNA analysis to confirm my suspicion, but the behavior strongly suggests I've got a sterile triploid form. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island