Leo's Mystery Strumaria
Hannon (Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:13:10 PST)

Mary Sue,
The technical details of style + filaments in Hessea and Strumaria can be
confusing, even with good technical jargon and illustrations. I have always
been bewildered that Snijman or someone else never merged these two, along
with Carpolyza, assuming they are a monophyletic lineage. It seems that the
justification used for expanding Drimia or merging Ornithogalum with Albuca
is comparable, especially when the character state of adnation of style and
filaments seems quite artificial.
None of which helps answer your question. Leaving floral details aside, I
have grown ssp. bulbifera for some years and it is very distinct
vegetatively since it offsets prolifically (every year each plant makes some
new offsets). These plants have linear, ascending, softly hairy leaves. In
contrast, the four different accessions (separate gatherings) of ssp.
discifera I grow each has different leaf morphology/presentation, and at
least one has leaves similar to ssp. bulbifera as described above but the
plants are solitary. Offsetting in this genus in general is uncommon, and I
would describe all four of these ssp. discifera as solitary bulbs. All have
been under similar conditions for 5-10 years.

Dylan Hannon

Dylan Hannon Rare Bulbs

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 8:22 PM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote:

Hi,

I was going to move Leo's Strumaria pictures to the Strumaria page. I too
have the book Diana referred to, Systematics of Hessea, Strumaria, and
Carpolyza.

I looked at the diagrams and read the text and it seems to me that the
descriptions are backwards to what you would expect to fit the names
of the two subspecies and opposite to what David Victor suggested. I'm
really puzzled.

In the book Snijman writes:
Strumaria discifera subsp. discifera -- "Style smoothly bulbiform or
irregularly thickened and longitudinally ridged in the proximal quarter."
Strumaria discifera subsp. bulbifera -- "Style discoid proximally, with a
prominent irregular rim on the disc distally, abruptly narrowed into a
slender column above."

The Color Encyclopedia of Cape Bulbs:
Strumaria discifera subsp. bulbifera -- "flowers with the stylar swelling
topped by a frilly rim"
Strumaria discifera subsp. discifera -- "flowers with the stylar swelling
smooth above"

What David said was:

I'm pretty sure that its Strumaria discifera subsp. discifera. This
subsp. has a frilly disc-like swelling at the base of the style,
whereas the other subsp. (bulbifera) has a bulbous shaped swelling.

Can anyone help me figure this out? Could she have switched the
descriptions in the first book which was repeated in the Color Encyclopedia
since it copied from the monograph?

Mary Sue

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