Ledebouria ovatifolia...or is it?
Cody Howard (Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:51:38 PDT)

Hello all,

I'm going to keep this as short as possible.

I have a Ledebouria that I received as L. ovatifolia. Following the advice of
someone I decided to key it to make sure it was labeled correctly. Now I'm
convinced that it is not L. ovatifolia but rather L. luteola. However, my plant
seems to be a mixture of the two descriptions but maybe youth and a lack of
understanding have lead to this confusion. Maybe I'm just doubting myself. I
have read the original descriptions of both species from their original
publications and I've read Venter's revision of the genus. Here is what Venter
says:

Ledebouria ovatifolia
Diagnostic features:///The/ brown to purple bulb scales with copious threads when
torn, appressed
leaves with threads when torn, flaccid inflorescences that are longer than the
leaves, basally compressed scape and the ridged rachis.
"L. ovatifolia is closely related to L. luteola but differs in the truncate
apices of the bulb scales and the partly emerged, ovate to deltate, mostly
humifuse leaves."

Ledebouria luteolaDiagnostic features:///Live/ bulb scales with copious threads when
torn, leaves fully developed at
anthesis, with a dull luster, with copious threads when torn, inflorescences
longer than the leaves, rachis ridged, bracteoles present, anthers pale violet,
ovary 6-lobed with well-developed basal lobes, capsule globose and the seed
brown.
"L. luteola is closely related to L. ovatifolia (Baker) Jessop but differs in
the apices of the bulb scales not at all truncate, leaves spreading and
linear-lanceolate to lanceolate."

So, my plant has linear/lanceolate leaves and the bulb are not truncate (I
think). I'm not sure what a truncated bulb would look like. 
Based off these two descriptions I have reason to believe that my plant could
very well be Ledebouria luteola. I just wanted other opinions before I went
changing my label and my records. 

Here are the pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/codycoyotee/…

Danke schön,
Cody Coyotee