Calochortus amabilis and several other early species are flowering in my
bulb house now. Beside the several plants of C. amabilis is what appears
to be a self-sown seedling of unusual appearance. While C. amabilis is
bright yellow and usually without purple markings at the base of the
tepals, the seedling is pale yellow with a cloudy lavender zone at the
bases. It's also somewhat hairy. Nearby grow yellow Calochortus
monophyllus, which is also in flower now and has distinct dark markings,
and white Calochortus albus just starting to open. I assumed the new
flower was a hybrid of C. amabilis x monophyllus, given its hairiness,
but I don't know why it would be paler than either parent. Mary
Gerritsen, in her excellent book "Calochortus: Mariposa lilies and their
relatives," notes that C. monophyllus has a natural hybrid with C.
albus, even though the two are in different botanical sections
(monophyllus in Eleganti, albus in Pulchelli; amabilis is in Pulchelli).
Thus, it may be C. monophyllus x albus, despite the plant's proximity to
C. amabilis and the close resemblance of the two in height, leaf and
scape (C. albus is very tall). Calochortus seeds are easily dispersed
when one collects the capsules, and the wind blows them around.

Has any other grower seen such a Calochortus? Do you know what the
parents are?

Things like this make me hesitate to send seed of cultivated Calochortus
to exchanges, but few of them are unattractive, or at least curious.
Problems arise when people grow cultivated seed and don't verify at
least the appearance of the resulting seedlings, then pass them on under
the seed parent's name. I'll hope that my new hybrid produces stem
bulbils, as many Calochortus do, so I can propagate it vegetatively.

The same goes for the "affinis group" of Fritillaria I recently
discussed here, but they do have a rather staggered flowering schedule,
so possibly more dependable.

Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA

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