Cyclamen confusum
Jane McGary via pbs (Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:29:24 PDT)

In my garden I have a great many plants of Cyclamen hederifolium, and a
small colony of plants (about 5 clones) grown from seed collected in the
wild in southern Greece, and sent as Cyclamen hederifolium subsp.
confusum. Apparently the latter is now known, at least by some
botanists, as Cyclamen confusum. The note in our wiki describes it as a
tetraploid. This would explain why my plants have very large, thick
leaves that are more rounded than those typical of C. hederifolium. In
the area where the C. confusum is growing, a number of self-sown
seedlings have appeared, all of the same large size.

I have hesitated to send seed of these C. confusum plants to exchanges
because I thought they would have crossed with the ordinary hederifolium
growing not far away. If they have a doubled chromosome number, however,
does that mean they can't hybridize with the diploid typical C.
hederifolium? Would it be useful to provide seed this summer to the BX/SX?

Incidentally, "confusum" from Latin "confundo, etc." here does not mean
"confused," but rather "joined" as in fused together. I don't know what
characteristic of the plant is indicated.

Jane McGary, Portland, OR, USA

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>