unknown Lachenalia
Mary Sue Ittner via pbs (Sat, 12 Feb 2022 16:48:10 PST)

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:

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