Galanthus Detective... Proposed Mission

[Brian Ellis]

I understand John Morley is going to speak to Chris Brickell at some point and hopefully find out what has happened here.

[Maggi Young]

I understand John Morley is going to speak to Chris Brickell at some point and hopefully find out what has happened here.

I hope we might learn the result of that here, where the greatest number of people can benefit from the information. 

[Margaret Thorne]

The correct collecting number is 33463, Galanthus plicatus, collected in the Crimea in 1959.
We are in the wonderful RBGE herbarium with the P H Davis collecting books and specimen in front of us.
The specimen label says: "Davis 33463 Galanthus plicatus. Crimea. Distr. Alushta; Centralnaja Kotlovina, between Alushta & Roman Kosh. Alt. 600m. Mixed beech forest. Leaves channelled, with paler median band. Fruits lying on ground. 4.6.195."
The last digit of the date is missing, but the collecting book clearly states 1959.
We'll ask permission to post photos.

[Margaret Thorne]

Better still, RBGE staff will do high resolution scans of all the specimens in the folder and make them available online in the next few weeks

[Alan_b]

The correct collecting number is 33463, Galanthus plicatus, collected in the Crimea in 1959.

So it was two numbers transposed 33463 instead of 33643.  And it was the Crimea, not Georgia - which Davis visited first before travelling on to Georgia.  And 1959, not the 1970s; specifically 4th June 1959. 

I would love to see the photos/scans.  Very well done, Margaret, for finding this out.

I got so excited about Margaret's post that I didn't read it carefully enough originally so I've had to edit my response a few times as I calmed down.  As a final edit, it is amusing to observe that everything we thought we knew about this snowdrop was wrong, apart from the fact that it was collected by Peter Hadland Davis.     

[Brian Ellis]

Thank you for clearing that up Margaret, I am sure Tim is delighted!  It will be interesting to see the herbarium specimens when they are available - I shall have to change my labels

[Margaret Thorne]

We’re glad we could help with this. David & I were visiting RBGE for a Meconopsis Group committee meeting yesterday morning and are very grateful to Lesley Scott who responded to our request for a visit to the Herbarium amazingly quickly. Here are the photos we took while we were there, all courtesy of RBGE. The eventual scans of the specimen will be much better quality and downloadable from the RBGE website and we’ll let everyone know when they are available.
It is interesting to note that in the sequence 33084 to 33927 covering Peter Davis’s 1959 travels in both Crimea and the Caucasus, 33463 is the only Galanthus.
‘K.’ refers to a specimen having been deposited at Kew Herbarium and ‘Le.’ that a third went to Leningrad. So for those in the South East a visit to Kew would give sight of one of the original collections.
Lesley also extended a welcome to Scottish Rock members to visit the Herbarium in Edinburgh to look at any specimens. It is a huge privilege to use this wonderful resource and visit requests should be made by email through: herbarium@rbge.org.uk

[Diane Whitehead]

Now the herbarium specimens have been tracked down, how did it get into cultivation?

[Alan_b]

That's just what I was thinking, Diane.  But there are four leaves and only item whcih I take to be a squashed bulb so presumably there was a second bulb that was grown-on that provided the second pair of leaves?

[Brian Ellis]

Now the herbarium specimens have been tracked down, how did it get into cultivation?

Well in one of Margaret's photos it is listed as being passed on to Kew and Leningrad, one has to presume as live material which was increased and passed around the galanthophile community.  Note that in my quote from North Green it was passed from Chris Brickell to John Morley, then again increased until there was enough to sell.

[Alan_b]

Oh yes, Brian; I had not spotted that.  Presumably what we have either derives from Kew or from a bulb Davis kept for the RBGE?  I suppose that there is no guarantee that the original bulbs collected were all the same clone anyway. 

Tim said in his original post that the stock in current circulation derives from Chris Brickell, that he had already contacted him and that Chris had promised to do more research. Your exact quote from the North Green catalogue confirms this and now that John Morley will also speak to him, Chris may feel a bit under pressure to trawl through his records and recollections.  Maybe Chris will be able say where his stock came from?  There seems to be a review process for the RBGE stock so snowdrop expert Aaron Davis (University of Reading) seemingly reviewed 33463 in 1994.  Could he have been offered and taken a live specimen derived from the original bulb at that time?

   

[Brian Ellis]

I really can't see what the fuss is now about, am I missing something?  Margaret very kindly tracked down the answer to Tim's question.  Obviously there was a clump of these snowdrops, obviously the finder shared them between the people that he knew would 'keep it going' and that is how it happened.  Chris Brickell was working at Wisley from 1958, these people all knew each other and had snowdrop lunches, things were passed round as gifts, much as today.  I can't believe that Chris Brickell will be losing sleep over this.  That's how it came into circulation.

[Alan_b]

Yes indeed, Brian, I am sure you are absolutely correct and I didn't mean to offend.  I just got caught-up in the original mystery surrounding this snowdrop and although this has been resolved I still wondered if any more information about it might emerge.  I am quite a fan of the 'Fake or Fortune' TV show where they try to trace the provenance of the artwork under consideration back as far as possible.  I don't think we galanthophiles pay enough attention to provenance (which is one reason why people crop-up on ebay selling fake snowdrops).  I think this is a pity, I like to remember who I got my plants from, particularly if they were gifts.  Tim traced the provenance of this snowdrop back through John Morley to Chris Brickell; wouldn't it be great (I thought to myself) if we could trace it back further, perhaps all the way back to Peter Davis himself.

Incidentally, Kew also have an online Herbarium database but I could find no mention of a Galanthus collected by P H Davis, just three contributions from A P Davis.  Plenty of other contributions by P H Davis, however. 

     

[Brian Ellis]

Yes indeed, Brian, I am sure you are absolutely correct and I didn't mean to offend...I don't think we galanthophiles pay enough attention to provenance.

No offence was taken, I just don't see the point, and at the same time I do disagree with the last part.  I was always taught that provenance is everything with bulbs, and I am sure this has got the necessary provenance - especially when you consider the people who are involved. 

[Alan_b]

Brian you say "Mission accomplished" whilst I want mission creep.  I do agree that if this cultivar had derived originally from Chris Brickell or John Morley or Wol & Sue Staines then the fact that any one of them thought it worthy of cultivation would give it a very good provenance and the fact that all three did must make it highly rated indeed.  But now my interest has been piqued, I remain curious about the early history of this snowdrop in cultivation and how if got from Peter Davis to Chris Brickell; I'm just a curious fellow, I suppose.     

Speaking of which, I wonder what has become of Tim Harberd, who proposed the mission?