Hello again everyone, I just wanted to post an initial update for my fieldwork in South Africa. *To see photos, please visit the lab note of my crowd funding campaign: https://experiment.com/u/YxskgQ/ <https://experiment.com/u/YxskgQ/>* Although I have only been in the country for a few days and most of that time has been spent organizing and getting settled,* I have already found two species of Geissorhiza within the city limits of Cape Town*. One, G. imbricata subsp. imbricata, I found in Rondebosch Common. Rondebosch Common, located in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, has had a variety of human uses in the past including military camps and cricket pitches. At first glance it may appear to be an abandoned weedy field in the middle of the suburbs, but it is in fact one of the last remaining fragments of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, a critically endangered vegetation type found nowhere else on earth. Despite invasion by some alien species, the commons maintains a great wealth of plant diversity including G. imbricata subsp. imbricata. G. imbricata is one of the most variable and least taxonomically understood species of Geissorhiza and was once considered three separate species but has since been assigned to two subspecies each in their own area with a gradient of forms between them. As long as I can find other examples of the other forms, I should be able to figure out if there is some hybridization going on here (as seems to be the case). It sounds to me like this group may be what's known as a "hybrid swarm." The other species I was able to find thus far is G. juncea, a relatively common species found in damp sandy habitats around the Cape Peninsula. I found it on the south-facing slope of Lion's Head, just outside the central business district of Cape Town which is also home to a great wealth of geophytic species including the red Chasmanthe in the foreground. *I'd like to thank those of you who have pledged a donation to my crowdfunding campaign already and also invite anyone else who is interested to visit my project page at https://experiment.com/projects/… <https://experiment.com/projects/…>. * And, if you'd like to see more photos of my fieldwork, consider following my Instagram account @evaneifler Enjoy! Evan _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…