Polygonatum, A pictorial guide

[Jim]

Hi Anne and Roland,
I have been growing two clones of the red kingianum outside for years and have had no problem getting them to flower and set seed. I live on the east coast in the States and it is almost a weed here. I can spare some if you want to try it Anne. Just contact me privately and I can send you some.
Jim

[bulborum]

Hello Jim

I would love to have some of your clone for the collection
maybe I  just have a bad clone
but I have the same problem with the yellow form
although I still don't believe the red one is a P.kingianum
the leaves are too small and different from the yellow one
maybe Aaron knows

Roland

[Jim]

Hi Roland,
I'm not sure but I believe the yellow form is from Burma and I have never tried that outside. As for the names, I will leave that to Aaron as well. Contact me off forum and I can send you a piece of one of my clones.
Jim

[Philip MacDougall]

Hi Ann, You may be referring to the Polygonatum in my greenhouse. I haven't tried this form outside yet, it's taken 3 years to get this initial growth. Naked bulbs sometimes take a year or 2 off from putting up a growth. I have several similar plants outside,  zone 7b or 8a, no problems. Lots of seedlings coming up this year, they also take 2 years to put up any green. Philip

[arisaema]

Here's a puzzling, little Chinese species, received back in 2007 and flowering for the first time.

[Afloden]

 What we call P. kingianum may be P. huanum -- the description for that species fits better. Also FOC gives a range of 1.7-5 mm for the filament length and a pink or white perianth. The filaments of Polygonatum are constants and some species can be identified just from them. This range is too great. The white/pink flowered plants may be a different species from kingianum also. Either way the red flowered plant wintered for me in eastern Kansas for 6 winters down to -15F. I would call it fully hardy. There are few species that are not hardy, but I am waiting to try some of the new ones outside until I have divisions or seedlings to spare.

 Not sure what I would call the yellowish one from Crug with the purple/reddish leaves. They say it is from Chen Yi? I have both clones of the plant collected by them in Thailand which may be vietnamicum -- a member of the kingianum complex.

 Julian, thanks for the info on the strange little "roseum" like plant. I am uncomfortable putting any name on it yet, but P. kansuense may be a possibility as other species described from Gansu/Kansu have a broad range into that part of Tibet.

 Phillip, I am intending to revise Disporopsis, Heteropolygonatum, and Polygonatum. I intend to also get to the others in the future. I currently have all the Disporopsis except jinfushanensis and the true fuscopicta, and 156 accessions of Polygonatum not counting my two flats of seed, ungerminated and germinated.

 Bjornar, are the stems hirsute and the leaves pubesent abaxially? 

 Aaron
 

[arisaema]

Bjornar, are the stems hirsute and the leaves pubesent abaxially? 

The stems are glabrous, the leaves are slightly scabridulous abaxially, no more than say, P. nodosum. The big-flowered no-name is also close to flowering again, still only one stem, unfortunately.

[bulborum]

Hello Jim

as promised here the pictures from P.prattii and P.prattii large form

Roland

[bulborum]

Hello Bjornar

Looks very much like Polygonatum zanlanscianense
make next week an other picture with the open flower

Roland

[arisaema]

Roland;

I posted it last year as well, the perianth is too big for it to key out as, well, anything... Aaron thought it belonged somewhere in the stewartianum/fargesii/fuscum complex like you.

[Afloden]

Roland,
 
 The short form of P. prattii is not one I grow. I have a CBE collection/# which is somewhat in between the two you have pictured, and the tall form, but I don't know the origin of the latter.

 Bjornar,

 P.nodosum should not be scabridulous abaxially. My two clones are completely glabrous throughout. The scabridulous leaves puts it in with the verticillatum/kansuense mess.

 The no-name may well be P. uncinatum, which was lumped in with P. kingianum. It has the large flowers and whorled leaves and on a pressed specimen a lot of the character of the living plant can be lost. Does it ever have single broader basal leaves come up from the rhizome?

 Aaron

[Paul T]

A 14 foot high Polygonatum with bright red flowers?    Oh My!!

Does anyone grow this in Aus?  I would just love to see it in the flesh.  It just sounds so amazing, both for the height AND the bright red flowers.

Thanks for a very eye-opening topic everyone.  So very many of this genus around that I have never heard of or seen.  Thank you!

[manicbotanic]

polygonatum betburg
polygonatum punctatum

[Lesley Cox]

Really beautiful foliage on the first one Shaun. The Cyclamen is not bad either.

[bulborum]

Lesley

There are a lot of babies around the cyclamen
maybe if they get dormant he can send you some
here the first seedpots start opening
yours probably in 3 weeks

Roland