Wiki Additions -- Fritillaria, Diuris
Mary Sue Ittner (Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:05:38 PDT)

Hi,

Mary Gerristen has recently added some habitat pictures of Fritillaria
pluriflora taken at Bear Valley, Northern California where they were
blooming in mass. What a sight that must have been.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

I've added some more Australian tuberous orchid pictures to the wiki. The
genus Diuris is often referred to by the common name of Donkey Orchids
because of two large petals that protrude from the top of the flower that
reminds people of a donkey's ears. But some of the species are called Bee
Orchids, Leopard Orchids, and even Purple Pansy Orchids. We saw a number of
them on our trip to Australia and were always delighted when that happened.
I've done my best to sort out the species we saw, but looking at my field
guides and a couple of Australian orchid books and pictures online did not
give me a lot of confidence. There are more than 50 species and so many
recent changes in which name to use for each. My books don't have all the
species, nor do they all reflect all the name changes and often the
description for the different species is the same (flowers yellow and
brown) which doesn't help in sorting them out. In addition I'm sure there
has to be a lot of variation in the wild and probably hybrids. There is a
wonderful Western Australian flora data base internet site which at least
gives you pictures and a site map which helps you sort out which species in
that state are found in the areas we visited and their time of bloom which
eliminates a number of the possibilities.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

Mary Sue