Cypella herbertii - white flowered?

[Rogan]

Hello!

I'm looking for a white-flowered irid of the same ilk as Cypella herbertii to compliment my orange and yellow forms of this species. It needn't be C. herbertii per se, but a similar species will do, just as long as it flowers at the same time of the year and is of a similar disposition and stature. I have bulbs of Cypella hauthalii opalina, but this species is much shorter, is winter-growing and flowers in early spring.

What about C. osteniana - would it fit my rather exacting requirements?   

Thanks a lot!

[Ezeiza]

Wow, that is precise, Rogan!

C. osteniana is a wonderful color, a cream ground with many fine brown pencilling lines. A beauty but the inflorescence is drooping as in some freesias. It is in flower right now if that is useful (have been in flower for a fortnight or so).

But C. herberti will overflower any others if faded flowers are removed. 3 months or more under your conditions would not be unusual. It is a marsh species and will thrive on extra watering.

[Rogan]

"C. osteniana is a wonderful color, a cream ground with many fine brown pencilling lines."

Thanks for the information Alberto - perhaps, if your C. osteniana set seed, we can organise a trade?

Somebody once told me about a white-flowered Hesperoxiphion species (H. niveum I think it was) I have never been able to find any additional information on this bulb and wonder whether it's a synonym for something else?

Thanks a lot.   

[Maggi Young]

Somebody once told me about a white-flowered Hesperoxiphion species (H. niveum I think it was) I have never been able to find any additional information on this bulb and wonder whether it's a synonym for something else?

Hesperoxiphion niveum (Ravenna) Ravenna
Ravenna published in Not. Mens. Mus. Nac. Hist. Nat. 21(249): 8 (1977).
Not. Mens., Mus. Nac.Hist. Nat. =  Noticiario mensual. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural

http://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/vrrc/?page=view&id=62731   specimen sheet


 attached below is blow-up of data on herbarium sheet..... tells us it's a white flowered bulb. 

[Maggi Young]

From the pages of another forum, http://www.iris-bulbeuses.org/forum/topic372.htm
I find that our own Rafa found the ID to this flower posted there a  couple of years ago as...
Hesperoxiphion niveum

[Rogan]

Thanks Maggi - something else to pursue!   

I love these South American Irids, they really get under your skin!

[Maggi Young]

They are indeed very elegant blooms.... and the markings are delightful. 

[Ezeiza]

Yes, Rogan, there are several capsules ripening. Some years they fully ripen seeds, some not. This applies to all tigridioids. As you know the develpoment of the capsule and the actual formation of seed are two independent processes. So, you end with a nice fat capsule bursting with....air.

The plant in the image is not Hesperoxiphion niveum. This is a dwarf species with a nice tuft of pleated foliage. The flowers are pure white, no hint of violet, lavender, etc. and the markings are in a warm shade of brown. Lovely.

The genus Hesperoxiphion has recently been found to be distinct and separated from Cypella and kin. Something unexpected; it was taken for granted that Hesperoxiphions were just other Cypellas.

Hesperoxiphion belong to the group of winter dormant montane species.

[Paul T]

From the pages of another forum, http://www.iris-bulbeuses.org/forum/topic372.htm
I find that our own Rafa found the ID to this flower posted there a  couple of years ago as...
Hesperoxiphion niveum

Maggi,

Looks more to me like a Neomarica than a Hesperoxiphion?  Without seeing the arrangement of the flower in relation to the leaf, it could certainly be a Neomarica from the pic..... the flowers sit on a stem coming off what looks a lot like a leaf (but which is actually a big, flattened green floral stem), whereas the Hesperoxiphion has a traditional flower stem like you see in most of the Irids.  I have Neomarica northiana and a yellow species, which I can't at the present recall a name for, in bud at the moment.  Now if I can just remember to check every morning to see whether there is a flower there, as they last such a short time and I rarely actually see a flower open on them 

[Rogan]

"...as they last such a short time and I rarely actually see a flower open on them"

Hesperoxiphion = "open by seven, gone by eleven"   

[Paul T]

Rogan,

Interestingly, I regularly saw flowers on the Hesperoxiphion when I was growing it (I think it has gone to the great garden in the sky during these last few years of drought), whereas the Neomaricas are very rare to catch a flower on.  I have my wife reminding me each day now to go and check the flower stems before work.  I have checked and I have buds on the N. caerulea as well, so all 3 are in bud.  Fingers crossed to seeing them all.  The N. caerulea I will certainly see as it is outside my front door, and it gets a lot of flowers on each head (or it did last year, the first time it flowered for me).  The others are tucked away in various places about the garden and I have to go and look for them. 

[Rafa]

I grew H. niveum but a little frost just one day before bloom destroyed the bud and stem, fortunately the bulb are alive and it has very good vegetative propagation so I think it would be possible to share. Alain Lazoze sent me a bulb last year and A. Castillo identified it.

[Rogan]

"I think it would be possible to share"

Wow! Fantastic Rafa     - of course I would be more than happy to send you something in return - are you looking for something in particular?