Photos in The Bulb Garden

Photos in The Bulb Garden
Jane McGary (Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:33:26 PST)

Thanks to Harold Koopowitz for the correction on identification of
fall-flowering Narcissus species. I see I've been perpetuating an
error, and will examine the plants I'm growing here and relabel as
appropriate. As I recall, all those I have grown from seed have
orange coronas and non-inflated tubes.

In answer to his question, yes, Galanthus peshmenii is
autumn-flowering. Also, everywhere I saw it, it was growing in very
sharply drained situations, even in the detritus on top of big
boulders (the seeds must have been brought there by ants), and in
shade. Here, it flowers somewhat later than G. reginae-olgae; that
species I also saw growing in deep shade, but here in Oregon it does
fine in sun.

Jane McGary

Thank you for the correction onAt 04:54 PM 11/7/2008, you wrote:

Hi Jane:

I enjoyed your article in this issue of the bulb garden. We went to
Crete at about the same time a few years ago. It was great fun. I
have a question and a comment. Is Galanthus peshmenii autumn flowering?

Narcissus serotinus has been confused for centuries. The true N.
serotinus is a smaller flower and has a lemon yellow corona with an
inflated floral tube. Your flower with its orange corona is actually
N. miniatus, the allopolyploid natural hybrid between N. serotinus
and N. elegans. This has been confirmed by recent DNA analysis. All
of the floras of the Mediterranean are wrong about the identity. This
is an ancient hybrid, today the true N. serotinus is confined to
Morocco, southern Portugal and a few sites in western Spain while the
hybrid covers most of the Mediterranean.