Erythronium 2011

[johnw]

You can see the flowers of 'Snowflake' are a bit cleaner at this point. Flowers are still emerging.

johnw

[gote]

This was not a bad winter for Erythroniums in my place in mid Sweden. The siberians did not try to flower below ground level and japonicum put up a show on every bulb.
Göte

[olegKon]

Erythronium dens-canis with 7 petals

[razvan chisu]

In my part of the world the Erythronium is already wilting, and going through the woods today I noticed among thousands of normal E. dens-canis a few plants with these red leaves. Does anyone have any idea what might have caused the unusual coloration?

[Maggi Young]

Is this not simply the anthocyanins in the leaves being activated early because of the much warmer spring season that many of these plants have experienced, rushing them to earlier "autumn" colour than is usual?  
I know that the foliage of erythroniums is long gone by "real" autumn, but the colouring processes initiated by the anthocyanins is the same, is it not?

We have found here in north-east Scotland that the Erythroniums ( and other plants) have gone over very quickly as a result of the abnormally warm weather we have had this spring. The flowers seemed in a great hurry to flower and try to make seed in the heat.... whether or not the seed set is a good one remains to be seen. I would think that the faster than usual decay of the foliage is not a good aid to helping the plant ripen a full seed load.

[razvan chisu]

Normally the leaves have a yellowish tint as the bulbs enter the dormancy state (like the one on the right).
At first I thought it is a deasease. But the bulb does not seem to be blemished in any way, and these are very isolated plants among thousands of normal ones.

[Maggi Young]

Ian says the leaf could have had a minor damage to the stem which inhibits the anthocyanins progress back  down to the bulb, causing the colour to be in the leaf.

[KK-Ann Arbor]

Erythronium nearing the end for this year.

[Guff]

1 Americanum
2 Pagoda
3 White Beauty

[jshields]

Erythronium nearing the end for this year.

You're lucky.  Our Erythronium finished up several weeks ago.  Now the Trillium are almost gone as well.

Jim in central Indiana

[Guff]

Dirk thanks, I have seed pods on both White Beauty and Pagoda growing.

I ordered some revolutum plants a couple weeks ago, i'm thinking atleast two springs before I see a flower? There were two or three decent sized bulbs out of eight when I went to plant them.

1-Revolutum seedlings
2-Erythronium bed

[Guff]

Found a nursery that has erythronium purpurascens for sale, how hardy is this plant? Would it grow in zone 4-5, worth taking a chance?

[Maggi Young]

Found a nursery that has erythronium purpurascens for sale, how hardy is this plant? Would it grow in zone 4-5, worth taking a chance?

I've never seen it offered, Guff.  
We have it from seed but it is not an easy species, though cold hardiness is not likely to be an issue. It won't enjoy too much heat, for sure. I'd give it a try.

[Guff]

Maggi thanks, ordered one. Also getting 3 hendersonii and 1 oregonum

I don't think the nursery has a web site, but he will send a plant list by email. Will need Excel program to read the file or download Excel Viewer.

http://download.cnet.com/Excel-Viewer-2003/3000-2064_4-10751304.html

oregonnativeplant@yahoo.com

[Ed Alverson]

Now that it is mid-August, the Erythronium flowering season has finally begun at Paradise Meadows, in the subalpine zone on Mt. Rainier.  The combination of heavy winter snowfall and a cool spring and summer has resulted in a very late melt-out of the snow in the subalpine zone this year.  You can see for yourself at the Paradise web cam at http://www.skimountaineer.com/MtnWebCams/Rainier-MtnWebCams.html?size=med&telemetry=true

Unfortunately they don't have any of the cameras pointed in a way to show the meadow vegetation, but both Erythronium montanum and E. grandiflorum grow here.

Normally the subalpine meadows on Mt. Rainier begin to melt out in early July. Four weeks ago were were traveling up to Seattle for a family visit and I wanted to stop off at Mt. Rainier on the way, but the snowpack was still 79 inches on the third weekend in July, so we decided to forego the side trip.

Contrast this with July 2005, which was a very dry year, when I found only a few patches of E. montanum still flowering above Paradise on July 11: http://www.srgc.org.uk/monthfeature/july2006/content.html

Ed