Fragrance in Colchicums
Jane McGary (Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:21:42 PDT)

Tom asked,

A Swedish botanist, Karen Persson, has written a new monograph of the
genus, but it has not yet appeared. I have heard that they are having
trouble getting funding for the publication. Persson has named many new
taxa over the past few years.

The write-up I mentioned in the AGS Encyclopaedia of Alpines is by Chris
Brickell, who was also at one time said to be preparing a monograph, but
apparently this did not come to fruition.

In any case, a botanical monograph would not be helpful in identifying
cultivars, many of which are hybrids. Besides, many of the named varieties
appear almost identical except for very slight differences in flower size,
amount of white in the throat, presence of tessellation, or depth of pink
color. You can identify the most distinctive ones, such as C. x agrippinum
or C. speciosum 'Album', from photos. I do have a Dutch descriptive list,
prepared by Antoine Hoog, that describes a number of large cultivars and
could photocopy the relevant pages for Tom if he gives me his postal address.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA