I've tried to stay out of trying to identify Mike's Lachenalia, partly because I find the key in the big Lachenalia book so much harder to use than the key in the 1988 book. And I continue to be puzzled with the breakup of the Lachenalia aloides complex. It may be one thing to be looking in habitat and know what grows in that area to help you identify it and another to look at a plant grown from shared seed that could be a hybrid. The colors of the flowers change dramatically as they flower so what they look like at one stage is so different from another. So if you look at a photo online without knowing what stage the flower is in you might miss the identification completely. Since Arnold takes such nice photos I've asked him to take a progression of photos of some of his to show the changes. And I'll attach photos of what I think are Lachenalia quadricolor in January and in February when the color of the flowers is different. Then after breaking up L. aloides, Lachenalia pustulata, L. unicolor, and L. pallida were all put into L. pallida even though they seemed different. I ordered Lachenalia orchioides var glaucina from the BX 2015 and when it flowered determined it wasn't it at all. That species is spicate, meaning that the flower is attached to the stem without a pedicel. The flowers in Mike's photos have pedicels so obviously are not L. orchioides. The same was true for my flowers. I ran out of steam making all the Lachenalia changes on the wiki after Duncan's 2012 book. For one thing it was impossible to figure out what some of the photos were when something that was one species became eight. I didn't finish so never changed L. unicolor and L. pustulata to L. pallida although I did note the change in the text and also kept the original name with the author. I decided my BX flower could be L. unicolor Jacq., now L. pallida Aiton. I suspect that is what Mike's flowers could be as well. That description is: Pedicels at least 2 mm long or longer, leaves lanceolate, inflorescence of oblong-campanulate flowers, outer segments cream to pale blue to shades of lilac, pink, magenta, blue or purple with darker gibbosities. Inner segments protrude and stamens are exserted. Regardless of what to call it, it is a very attractive species. Mary Sue On 2/12/2022 11:33 AM, Mike via pbs wrote: > Hello All, > > Purple/bluish Lachenalia are certainly a refined taste. The flower most > closely to me resembles L. Orchioides. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Lachenalia_quadricolor_early.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 238634 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Lachenalia_quadricolor_late.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 334303 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
