Uvularia for ID

[Lvandelft]

I have several Uvularia in my garden.
But I have two different U. grandiflora. One is the normally seen yellow with nice big flowers,
but I have one with much more orange coloured flowers.
Would like to know if this is a special variety.
I believe I bought it during the last few years, but cannot remember where.
Pictures:
Uvularia for ID
Uvularia gr.fl. to compare

[Maggi Young]

Luit, normally I would think of the stronger colour as being U. grandiflora andthe paler version as U. perfoliata......not sure WHY I think this, that is the problem 
On the old forum, http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/10449.html, well down the page, there is a post by John Forrest, Posted on Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 1:20 pm: which shows two forms he has and this is how he calls his, too.

Interesting page that one from the archived Forum, actually, there are wonderful photos of Mr Amazing's Lewisias and all sorts of other great plants, I have enjoyed looking through it again! 

[Lvandelft]

Luit, normally I would think of the stronger colour as being U. grandiflora andthe paler version as U. perfoliata......not sure WHY I think this, that is the problem 
On the old forum, http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/10449.html, well down the page, there is a post by John Forrest, Posted on Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 1:20 pm: which shows two forms he has and this is how he calls his, too.

Interesting page that one from the archived Forum, actually, there are wonderful photos of Mr Amazing's Lewisias and all sorts of other great plants, I have enjoyed looking through it again! 

Maggi, I think there will be more different forms in the wild too. My problem is that I have two different U. grandiflora now,(one is earlier) and this one for ID. And I grow Uvularia flava, which might be the same as U. perfoliata, which was shown by John Forrest . And his U. grandiflora looks the same as my U. grandiflora.
But I remember some cultivar name with....."Winston" or something like that.??


It was good looking back these pages in the Old Forum. Now you can see who are the real Forum Diehards.
And........... that April was a (partly) cold one too.    

[Susan Band]

To me Uvularia grandiflora and perfoliata are very different plants. Grandiflora tends to stay in the same place and bulks up where as perfoliata runs around with underground white roots. Grandiflora is also twice the height of perfoliata. That's how I see it anyway, although I might have been wrong for a long time. Krystal grows them from seed - where are you Krystal? do they vary a lot in colour? do you of know any named forms?
Susan

[David Nicholson]

Luit, normally I would think of the stronger colour as being U. grandiflora andthe paler version as U. perfoliata......not sure WHY I think this, that is the problem 
On the old forum, http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/10449.html, well down the page, there is a post by John Forrest, Posted on Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 1:20 pm: which shows two forms he has and this is how he calls his, too.

Interesting page that one from the archived Forum, actually, there are wonderful photos of Mr Amazing's Lewisias and all sorts of other great plants, I have enjoyed looking through it again! 

Luckily it's chucking it down here so I've spent the last couple of hours looking at the link Maggi gave to the old Forum and then followed up with a browse through loads of old Forum pages. Not only am I freely salivating down my jumper because of all the goodies on display but have filled three more pages in my 'wants notebook'.

[Lesley Cox]

I have had an Uvularia for a few years but it hasn't flowered yet so can't say what it's like. However, its name is U. grandiflora `Colyn' (I think, label has faded) and I was told it was a better, selected form of grandiflora.

[Lesley Cox]

I went to the link too David. Brought back lots of memories of super plants but BOY, didn't it take a long time to get down that whole page? Much easier on the new Forum.

[Kristl Walek]

Luit,

I believe that ALL the plants you showed (including the one you have named "Uvularia flava") are all U. grandiflora. Size of the flowers alone would decide that.

The flowers of U. perfoliata are straw yellow (pale) and only about 2.5cm long (compared to the larger, 5cm decidedly yellow flowers of U. grandiflora).

There are only 5 recognized species, which have now been categorized into sections:
Section Uvularia (perfoliate leaves- U. grandiflora and U. perfoliata)
Section Oakesiella (sessile leaves- U. sessilifolia, puberula, floridana)

The leaves of U. perfoliata are glabrous on both sides, U. grandiflora is pubescent underneath.
U. perfoliata 60cm (short rhizomes and stolons), U. grandiflora 80cm (short rhizomes no stolons).

Uvularia grandiflora is a widespread species in this area. Flower colour varies slightly from a good, clear yellow, to a deeper lemon yellow. I think your "flava" and the lighter coloured clone are well within the range of yellows one sees here in the wild, and pretty typical of the ones growing in my own (wild) woodland here, as you will see in the posted picture.

The RHS mentions a U. grandiflora "Citrina" (flowers clear yellow), and I am aware of an anemic yellow U. grandiflora var. pallida (closer to the colour of U. perfoliata in fact).

In North America the only other cultivar I am aware of is called "Sunbonnet" (which I have not seen nor could I find an on-line picture". It is described as "having larger and brighter yellow flowers," (not orange, as you note your clone is).

[Afloden]

As Kristl said all shown here are U.grandiflora.

 The variation in color is interesting in the wild. Those plants I have seen in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, southwest Missouri and Arkansas have all had clear yellow flowers. The plants along the Mississippi river bluffs in Illinois have an orange stripe down the bright yellow petals and give an overall orange cast to the flower. Those in the southern Blue Ridge, northern Alabama and Georgia have been a pale yellow. Having never seen them in the northeast I cannot say what the flowers are like there. 

 U.perfoliata is distinct in its longer rhizomes in most of its range, but in South Carolina and North Carolina I have encountered semi-clumping large plants that are distinct in 'feel' from the shorter thing that carpets woodlands in my area.

 Aaron Floden
 Knoxville, TN

[Maggi Young]

Uvularia just extending here in Aberdeen....

[Lvandelft]

Thank you Kristl and Aaron for your detailed reports.
I do have the "flava" type more than 30 years in my garden and always believed what
older gardeners in Holland told me:
The darker yellow one is U. grandiflora and the one I have is wrong named with U. grandiflora.

The "flava" type, I have is at least much lower and will grow here in the "bulbsand" in full sun, but the dark yellow forms need shade here and are always much higher.
Well the bonus for me is that I have now 4 different U. grandiflora:

One is looking just like Kristl's plant growing in her place.
Two are real yellow, one of them is earlier.
And one is orange-yellow which I have only a few years.

I never had U perfoliata, but now I know it is a 'running' plant.

It would be nice to have named cultivars which are registered somewhere.

[Susan Band]

Luit, Since you have 4 clones do you ever get seed? I never do but I only have 1 clone.
Susan

[Lvandelft]

Susan, I only see seedpods, but never seeds in it.

This morning I went out and made pictures of all four clones and surprisingly found the
label of the orange-yellow one.
It was written as Linda Winsor, but in RHS Database I found : Lynda Windsor
It was last in plantfinder of 2002, which I don't have, but maybe someone else will do, so
we can find out where it came from.

Here is the collage I made, it goes:
Clockwise from above left: Uvularia orange yellow/ yellow 2/
Yellow 1/ as flava.

[Afloden]

 Here are a few photos. The Illinois form is really attractive and clumps nicely. The variegated one is in plant heaven, the variegation was just too much to keep it vigorous once it was separated from its 'mother.'

 The Uvularia perfoliata is nice to have, but the photo shows just a small amount of the acre of covered area. It spreads vigorously and needs weeding out in small garden.

 Seed pods will go pale and split at the apex into three parts and have several seeds inside. I have always had seed, but I have always lived where it grows native.

 All the best,
 
 Aaron Floden
 Knoxville, TN

[Kristl Walek]

Aaron....thanks for posting these. That good definitive yellow on the Illinois U. grandiflora is quite striking---have never seen such a dark colored one in the wild here. Is it possible for you to post a picture of the U. perfoliata flower? I would really like to see a realistic size comparison to grandiflora (I know it is only supposed to be about half the size of grandiflora). I don't grow it here.