Variation in Lycoris squamigera
James Waddick (Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:55:42 PDT)

Dear Anita and all,
Yes,,, and no.
Most of the L squamigera grown in the world are propagated
vegetatively - not by chip budding or scaling or quartering etc - as
far as I know. Do you have some specifics otherwise.? The bulbs are
vigorous enough and multiply fast enough to produce more than ample
bulblets and divisions to fill the commercial needs.

Some other Lycoris are tissue cultured - right Tony ?

L. squamigera was long believed, based on morphology and
chromosomes, to be a natural hybrid of L. straminea and L. sprengeri.
That specific cross was purposely repeated and the resulting plant
looked in all points like typical L. squamigera, but the plants were
diploid with 2n = 19. Essentially all cultivated L. squamigera are
3n = 27. One problem with this theory is that L. straminea is also
believed to be of hybrid origin.

Ocassionally L. squamigera will produce a seed in my garden,
but there are a variety of other species around that could act as
pollinators. I think it is safe to say it is totally self sterile.

Tricky stuff here.
best Jim W.
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph. 816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
Summer 100F +