Blue Corydalis

[arisaema]

I'm still searching for a few blue Corydalis, in particular C. mairei, C. pseudobarbisepala, C. calycosa, C. mucronipetala, C. curviflora and the hybrid 'Kingfisher'. Also looking for C. gigantea and C. arctica/pauciflora. I'm more than happy to pay for them, or trade in other Corydalis or perennials

[Lesley Cox]

Probably the professional seedlists offer the best chances, if you haven't seen them among the many images posted on the Forum.

[winwen]

Hello Arisaema,

it's good 2 know that I am not the only one addicted to blue Corydalis.
Unfortunately I have to say that even professional seedlists only very rarely offer Corydalis seeds. This may be the case because they loose their viability quickly. The problem is that if chilled too early, they cease to grow alltogether. If stored too long under room-temperature, they die anyway. I have made the experience that when seeds are older than 6 months they will only germinate sparsely.
I have also looked for a "Corydalis-Society" but have not found any hint that such a group exists anywhere or has ever existed at all.
The only list I know of offering viable Corydalis seeds was Dr. Alexandra Berkutenko's seedlist. Unfortunately she seems to have stopped doing business some years ago.

The only working source of (blue) Corydalis-seeds I actually know of is Jan Jilek at www.wildbulbs.eu.
He will start selling this years seeds on July, 20th. I hope that he will be able to offer Corydalis vorobievii-seeds again (as he did some years ago). C. vorobievii is synonymous for C. ussuriensis! Otherwise you may only ask gardeners growing such plants but not offering Corydalis seeds commercially (Janis Ruksans may be worth a try!)

Good luck!

[Susan Band]

Hi Arisaema,
I don't know how far away you are but Peter Korn at Landveter  has C. barbasepela in his garden and possibly for sale. I have what I think is C. curvifolia but it gets frosted every spring so I rarely get seed, it is rather a muddy blue but perhaps there are better clones.
By the way the Nomocharis seed you sent is still doing well.
Susan

[arisaema]

Susan;
Thanks, I knew of Peter Korn, but he didn't have plants for sale when some of my friends visited last year. Paul Christian has offered C. curviflora in the past (the real one, not the flexuosa-plant offered as 'Blue Heron'), but if it's frosted in your garden it's probably doomed here. Great to know the Nomocharis are doing well!

Lesley;
I haven't seen seeds or plants of any of these offered, unfortunately, but they are in cultivation so this forum is my best bet!

winwen;
I know of Jilek, I've considered ordering in the past, but haven't gotten around to it. The C. ambigua subspecies he's offering are all C. fumariifolia, so he's probably using an older Russian flora. Have you found any mention of C. woroschilovii anywhere? Its not listed in IPNI.

[winwen]

Arisaema,
you're right! Jan Jilek uses an older taxonomy when it comes to corydalis.
So ambigua is a synonym for fumariifolia (at least for him) and vorobievii for ussuriensis as well as remota for turtschaninovii.
I have not found woroschilovii listed anywhere but in my correspondence Jan gave me a reference to an older russian paper where woroschilovii has been taxonomically mentioned.
So the question left is: who is right? There has not really been much work on the taxonomy of corydalis. My only reference is Lidens and Zetterlunds book on the genus. But even there (where older works are cited and older names mentioned as synonyms) woroschilovii is not mentioned. So there still may be things of which Liden/Zetterlund don't know of. Janis Ruksans findings for instance always bring us something new (for example Corydalis ornata which was originally mislabeled by him) and still many of his far eastern Corydalis (which he uses to mark with a questionmark in his catalogues) have at least an unclear taxonomically status (hence the different cultivars of C. turtschaninovii - Vladiwostok, Ussuri Dawn, ....)

[Lesley Cox]

Have you found any mention of C. woroschilovii anywhere? Its not listed in IPNI.

I've never seen this name before but as shown in the Jilek gallery, is it not everyone's dream come true? All those shades of sea green, turquoise and sky blue. Elysian Fields!

[arisaema]

winwen;
The latest treatment would probably be the recently published Flora of China, but it obviously only deals with those species found south of the border. I wonder if the remaining volumes of the book series "Flora of the Russian Arctic" was ever published? I have volumes I and II, but neither contain the treatment of Fumariaceae.

Corydalis woroschilovii has the "chin beard" typical of subsect. Officinales so it should be closely related to C. turtschaninovii and C. ornata (and the intermediate "sp. nova" listed in Janis' catalogue). A lumper would probably say they all belong to the same polymorphic species, to me it looks intermediate between C. turtschaninovii and C. t. ssp. vernyi.

[Hjalmar]

Thanks, I knew of Peter Korn, but he didn't have plants for sale when some of my friends visited last year. Paul Christian has offered C. curviflora in the

I bought Corydalis pseudobarbisepala from Peter last month, and he had quite a lot for sale then.

[Maggi Young]

Ian features blue corydalis in this recent Bulb Log:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010May281275048030BULB_LOG__2110.pdf

C. pseudobarbisepala is a real cracker of a plant.... if you have the chance to buy one, then don't miss it!
The flower colour is fabulous and the foliage has great markings and form , too.