Leo has written a very complete and helpful response to the question posed in a previous email about how to grow a number of Arizona species. The taxonomists have been busy and have now decided the name Dichelostemma capitatum is a synonym for Dipterostemon capitatus and named 3 taxa. After much resistance I finally got around to updating the wiki to reflect this. I guess we can continue to call it blue dicks. The desert species has been named Dipterostemon capitatus ssp. pauciflorus (Torr.) R.E. Preston. Besides the difference in where it grows, it is distinguished from ssp. capitatus by white or streaked purple instead of dark blue or purple bracts at the tops of the stem and flowers that grow on much longer pedicels (6-34 mm vs. 2-12 mm). There are also only 2-5 flowers in the average umbel. In ssp. capitatum there are 2-16. It's always a challenge to figure out photos on the wiki from the past when these kind of changes are made. I added a few photos from iNaturalist for this subspecies and I think some photos from Nhu could be it as well based on the location and the long pedicel. But he also had photos from that location that did not appear to have the long pedicel which in my mind raises some questions although perhaps those flowers would ultimately have the long pedicel once they were farther along. It's possible that seed of this species may be found under both names. > There are also the very widespread and easy to grow Calochortus nuttallii and Dichelostemma capitatum, which has been called Dichelostemma pulchellum. > > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>