OK, Jim. "Close" for me and for you are different animals, I was using the word quite loosely. I agree with you, having read the abstract of Alan Meerow. It's closer than canna, or iris, though. ----- Original Message ----- From: "J.E. Shields" <jshields@indy.net> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 5:36 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Pancratium maritimum Hi Adam and all, Adam, I hate to burst your bubble, but Pancratium and Hymenocallis are not particularly closely related. Hymenocallis is in the American Clade of Amaryllidaceae, related more closely to Hippeastrum, Ismene, and Griffinia than to Pancratium. Pancratium is in the Eurasian Clade, most closely related (by DNA) to Sternbergia and more closely related to Narcissus, Lycoris, and Galanthus than to any American amaryllid. Be prepared to use in vitro embryo rescue to grow any seeds resulting from crossing Hymenocallis and Pancratium. Or at least don't say I didn't warn you! A DNA Phylogenetic Tree is on my web site at http://shieldsgardens.com/amaryllids/… adapted from Alan Meerow's 1999 paper. Best regards, Jim Shields At 05:15 PM 3/8/2010 -0600, you wrote: >Pancratium and Hymenocallis are closely allied even though they are very >different in terms of growing requirements and tolerances. It's what >fascinates me about the prospect of a hybrid between P. maritimum and H. >occidentalis which (the latter) I gow here in my 5a gardenn with basically >minimal protection. Has tolerated 2 years of a dip to - 5° (2 nights each >year.) ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/