I've visited one of the very few wild sites of Erythronium elegans on Mount Hebo, Oregon, and I don't recall seeing any pink coloration in the flowers. I checked my photos (slides, so I can't post them) and it confirms my memory. However, the other site or sites may look different. Also, some pink may appear as the flowers fade. Diana is correct that it is far from E. montanum (in a different mountain range across a wide valley), but I think E. revolutum may at one time have been fairly close. E. revolutum usually grows in sites with more moisture than the other species mentioned and flourishes in regions of very high rainfall, as anyone who has seen the vast display of it in Rick Lupp's woodland garden can attest. The limited distribution of E. elegans on a couple of coastal mountaintops is thought by some to result from the gradual encroachment of tree cover in its earlier range, a process that would be encouraged by fire suppression and climate warming. On Mount Hebo there is a profuse (protected) population in a clearing and extending down a slope too steep for trees to grow. Collecting any material of this species is now prohibited. By contrast, Erythronium oreganum is common under heavy conifer cover. Erythronium montanum usually grows in open sites, often near where Erythronium grandiflorum tolerates more shade. I don't know whether the latter two hybridize, but they have a good chance to do so if possible. Diana Reeck, who operated Collectors Nursery for many years, is now working in Salem, Oregon, with Erythronium hybrids, including some stock acquired from Walter Blom. One of these hybrids involving E. revolutum is in my garden and is a wonderful little plant, short, pink, floriferous, and increasing fast. I've also raised plants from seed given me by Phyllis Gustafson of Medford, Oregon, from plants in her garden that were hybrids between E. oreganum and E. hendersonii. The seedlings are tall and show interesting color variations. Jane McGary Portland, Oregon, USA On 1/14/2016 8:57 AM, David Pilling wrote: > (posting on behalf of Diana Chapman) > > I really wonder about that, though. Isn't it just as likely that in > ancient times there was one basic Erythronium, then as climate and > geographic changes isolated populations they evolved into different > species. Just because there is pink in E. elegans (and it grows quite > a distance from any E. revolutum that I know, and a VERY long way from > E. montanum), doesn't mean it has E. revolutum in its ancestry. All > of these: E. revolutum, oregonum, californicum and elegans are going > to be very very close genetically, so just the expression or > repression of a few genes could be responsible for the color variation. > > Diana Chapman > > On 13/01/2016 18:40, youngs wrote: >> New Bulb Log 2 of 2016 online with garden and weather update & 4 more >> chapters of 'Erythroniums in Cultivation' >> These are three species Ian finds more challenging to grow , E. >> purpurescens, E. pluriflora and E. taylorii plus a potentially new >> species. >> >> http://srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/… >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> >