Flowering Now - August 2009

[Brian Ellis]

Looking good at the moment is Asclepias tuberosa

[cohan]

Looking good at the moment is Asclepias tuberosa

indeed! hard to top that colour!

[Hristo]

Hi Gerd,
The name Musala is of Turkish origin - Mus - Alah/Allah, Bulgaria
was part of the Ottoman empire for 400 to 500 years!
I have attached pics of microlepis from Mt.Musala and Mt.Botev
I kind of suspect the var. musalae should be a collection and not a variety,
there is no entry in Flora Bulgarica for this variety.

[cohan]

Hi Gerd,
The name Musala is of Turkish origin - Mus - Alah/Allah, Bulgaria
was part of the Ottoman empire for 400 to 500 years!
I have attached pics of microlepis from Mt.Musala and Mt.Botev
I kind of suspect the var. musalae should be a collection and not a variety,
there is no entry in Flora Bulgarica for this variety.

fantastic plant! and looks like some other  cool stuff growing there too..

[Lori S.]

I find that Nymphaeas are easily misnamed and itis difficult to unravel this.

Is this varigeation similar to that in yellow hardy Nymphaeas and Do you think that it is influence from N mexicana which allegedly is a parent of the Marilac yelows?
Göte

My immediate thought was that the yellow Nymphaea have similar markings (although not as strong) and wondered whether it was similar.... but Göte  beat me to it.  

Gote, yes, Stuart has complained about getting many mislabelled water lilies also!  

Gote and Paul, I'm not sure exactly what aspect of the leaf variegation your questions are about but I will try to answer.    (Please feel free to restate the questions, if I'm barking up the wrong tree! Perhaps someone can answer sensibly, if not me.  )  
The variegation on the leaves of 'Crystal' (tropical viviparous day-bloomer) is more intense than on the hardy yellows that spring to mind, e.g. 'Chromatella', 'Helvola'.  It is also nicely set off by the darker green leaves, but it fades quickly as the leaves age (as opposed to tropical day-bloomer 'Albert Greenburg' - a readily available comparison -  where the variegation fades only slightly).

Re. whether the leaf variegation in 'Crystal' is from N. mexicana, I don't know.  N. mexicana is a hardy species, while 'Crystal' is a tropical... apparently, hardy water lilies and night-blooming tropicals are now considered to be fairly closely related, but hardy water lilies and day-blooming tropicals, less so (Slocum, 2005).   I couldn't find anything in our books that suggests that N. mexicana is used in hybridizing with tropical species... ?   So, I have no idea on that one!  Any thoughts?  (By the way, 'Crystal' was introduced by Don Bryne, Suwannee Laboratories, Florida.)

Re. N. mexicana being a parent of hardy Marliac yellows, on the basis of leaf variegation... Browsing through Slocum's book for Marliacs with variegated leaves, here's some info:
N. 'Andreana' (orange & yellow), 'Arethusa' (red) = N. alba var. rubra x N. mexicana
N. 'Aurora' (yellow to red, changeable), 'Robinsoniana' (orange-red), 'Seignoureti' (yellow-orange changeable) = "Probably" N. alba var. rubra x N. mexicana
N. 'Chromatella' (yellow) = N. alba x N. mexicana
N. 'Helvola' (yellow) = "Probably" N. tetragona x N. mexicana (NB. Both of these species have spotted leaves.)
There is also a considerable number of Marliac lilies with variegated leaves for which the parentage is said to be "unknown", e.g.  N. 'Arc-en-Ciel' (pink to white), 'Colonel A. J. Welch' (yellow), 'Comanche' (changeable), 'Ellisiana' (red), 'Fulva' (red-orange), 'Gloriosa' (red), 'Laydekeri Fulgens(red)/Lilacea(pink)/Purpurata(red-white)/Rosea(pink)', 'Paul Hariot'(orange changeable), 'Sanguinea' (yellow-orange changeable), 'Sioux' (changeable), 'Solfatare' (apricot), 'Somptuosa' (pink-red), 'Splendida' (pink).

I don't have an opinion really, but it seems like it may be true that variegation in Marliac hardy yellows is from N. mexicana, from what Slocum indicates.   (Well, at least something better than 50-50 probability, with that "probably" in there...  )

Another book seems to suggest that N. mexicana was used to impart changeability, which also seems likely, from what Slocum indicates.

Edit: Oh, and I was wrong to say that Marliac lilies were "sterile"/infertile.  Apparently, the problem is not with fertility, but with "the high variability of chromosome counts, or ploidy, in their pollen" (ref. Encyclopedia of Water Garden Plants, Speichert & Speichert).  While the plant itself has a stable, definable chromosome count, the pollen and eggs do not, which may result in unsuccessful pollination (due to differing chromosome numbers between egg and pollen or if the sum of the two is odd)...   

[Hristo]

Hi Cohan,
Yes, many cool plants growing on Mt.Musala, my favourites were Aqulegia aurea and Gentiana frigida.

[Geebo]

Hi all,

Got a chance to get out yesterday,last day of July....!

One of our coll of echinacea,more to follow
Cichorium roseum hope I have the name right
Cichorium roseum brought inside to capture.

[Sinchets]

More pics from the Rila mountains:
Aconitum lycoctonum on a montane streamside.
Anthemis cretica (?)
Armeria (maritima) alpina

[derekb]

Two extremes of Eucomis,
Ecomis bicolor, 24 inches from top of pot to top of bloom.
Eucomis octopus 5 inches from top of pot to top of bloom.

[Gerdk]

Hi Cohan,
Yes, many cool plants growing on Mt.Musala, my favourites were Aqulegia aurea and Gentiana frigida.

Chris, Thank you once again for the explanation of 'Musala'!

Good to have a specialist near (I suggest) the home of Aquilegia aurea.
Does this species grow on limefree soil? There is a vague reference in a German specialist book (Wocke) that perhaps indicates that.
This columbine was never happy in my garden - Aquilegia chrysantha, which usually is the result when 'aurea' seeds are ordered grows like a weed.
I would be glad when you will do me the favour to tell a little bit about the growing conditions of this beautiful species in the wild.

Gerd

[gote]

No Lori.  You are not barking up the wrong tree. This is a very good answer. Thank you!
Göte

[cohan]

Two extremes of Eucomis,
Ecomis bicolor, 24 inches from top of pot to top of bloom.
Eucomis octopus 5 inches from top of pot to top of bloom.

nice! i hadn't heard of such small ones before.... are these all tender/subtropical species?

[Rodger Whitlock]

The name Musala is of Turkish origin - Mus - Alah/Allah. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman empire for 400 to 500 years!

I've read that while Bulgaria was a part of the Ottoman Empire and ruled from Istanbul and subjected to forced Turkification, Romania was in a feudal relationship to the O.E. and retained its own rulers. Hence, so the source goes, while the Romanians today have no particular animus toward the Turks, the Bulgarians remain quite anti-Turk.

True in your opinion? (I accept that your eyes are aimed at the earth for plants and the mountains for inspiration, not at political issues.)

Another obscure detail of Bulgarian history: the first published work by Robert Crumb, the American cartoonist ("Keep on trucking", Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat) was an illustrated travelogue of a visit to Bulgaria in the early 1960s, published in the long-defunct "Help!" magazine. He did not make it sound like a pleasant place. No eye for the beauties of nature, that man.

[Hristo]

Hi Rodger,
Fair to say there has been alot of 'to-ing and fro-ing' in the Balkans!

[Hristo]

Hi Gerd,
When we saw Aquilegia aurea it was growing in the shade of north facing granitic cliffs on Mt.Maliovitsa. Cool, shaded and acidic!
Flora Bulgarica also shows it growing in the Pirin and W.Rodopi which are a mix of acidic and alkaline rock types.
We will be visiting these areas in the next few weeks, so we hope to see if Aquilegia aurea is restricted to acidic
soils! Pics taken attached.