Dear Diane Whitehead, i only know of the tretraploid form of rizehensis which multiplies like a weed and has fused twin headed flowers or frequently two or more flowers to a scape and many other infirmities.All other forms of this species can be excruciatingly slow.My original clone from Potterton & Martin in the early eighties has made a small clump after all these years.One form that I collected in turkey recently flowers in November every year for the last two years.Quite a surprise.it was growing very low down near the black sea compared to all other populations.It seems to grow well but slowly,better than my original P. & M. form. 25 different galanthus in full flower on the 30th of jan.Since then it is spiralling out of count. Kind regards, Mark W. Brown > Message du 03/01/08 23:58 > De : "Diane Whitehead" > A : "Pacific Bulb Society" > Copie à : > Objet : [pbs] tetra snowdrops? > > I've been scrutinizing my two snowdrop books in preparation for the > season. > > In Snowdrops, by John Grimshaw and Aaron Davis, it was written that > Dr. Ben Zonneveld of Leiden University was measuring the amount of DNA > in snowdrop species and some cultivars, using Flow Cytometry. > > In 2003, Zonneveld, Grimshaw and Davis, published an article about > this in Plant Systematics and Evolution. > > Tetraploids were found in Galanthus transcaucasicus and hexaploids in > G. elwesii and G. lagodechianus. > > I grow a lot of elwesii. Does this mean that some of them are likely > to be hexaploid? Would I look for the biggest ones? > > I have read that some of the best-known snowdrops, like Magnet, are > triploid, which means they are sterile. > > Is there a list somewhere of tetraploid snowdrop cultivars? > > Diane Whitehead > Victoria, British Columbia, Canada > maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate > mild rainy winters, mild dry summers > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > >