Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: JohnnyD on July 05, 2008, 02:30:27 PM

Title: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: JohnnyD on July 05, 2008, 02:30:27 PM
This little plant suddenly appeared in a pot which was labelled Townsendia!
It is between 30 & 80mm tall and the total head length is 10mm with 7mm of flower.
It looks almost like a campanula though it also gives the impression of being an annual. ::)
I must say I like it - it is exactly the sort of plant I would see in my mini-gardens. If I can keep it that is!
Any help most welcome. :-\
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: shelagh on July 05, 2008, 04:19:44 PM
Looks as if it has set seed, so you are in with a chance Johnnie.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: annew on July 05, 2008, 11:35:29 PM
It looks like a plant I have as Wahlenbergia saxicola.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: JohnnyD on July 06, 2008, 09:23:52 AM
Thanks Anne, that may just make sense.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: JohnnyD on July 09, 2008, 09:46:31 AM
And another thing .......
When the memory starts to fail, and labels fade & disappear, even plants which should be memorable fail to identify themselves!
I should know which this primula is but would appreciate a reminder.
John
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Maggi Young on July 09, 2008, 12:37:09 PM
Primula florindae, Johnny  8)
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: JohnnyD on July 09, 2008, 12:42:35 PM
Thanks Maggi, & congratulations on such a brilliant website.
John
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Maggi Young on July 09, 2008, 12:47:48 PM
Thanks Maggi, & congratulations on such a brilliant website.
John

Aw, shucks, we just does wot we can!  :-*
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 09, 2008, 10:58:37 PM
I thought Primula florindae was lemon yellow?
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Lvandelft on July 09, 2008, 11:16:52 PM
I thought Primula florindae was lemon yellow?

Plantfinder 2008:

Primula
florindae bronze-flowered florindae
buff-flowered florindae
'Butterscotch'florindae hybrids
florindae Keillour hybrids
florindae magenta-flowered
florindae 'Muadh'
florindae orange-flowered
florindae peach-flowered 
florindae 'Ray's Ruby'
florindae red-flowered
florindae terracotta-flowered

at your service Anthony  ;D ;D
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Lesley Cox on July 09, 2008, 11:31:07 PM
As you can see Anthony, it varies a lot. On the Primula page, Giles showed a very attractive pinky-red shade he'd just bought. Could have been 'Ray's Ruby.' What no-one has mentioned so far is the wonderful perfume this species has - in all its forms.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Magnar on July 10, 2008, 09:54:04 AM
I aslo thought P. florindae to be yellow. So when I get all shades of red / pink / organe on the plants self sowed in the garden, I believed they were hybrids between P. florindae and P. waltonii.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Maggi Young on July 10, 2008, 12:53:58 PM
I aslo thought P. florindae to be yellow. So when I get all shades of red / pink / organe on the plants self sowed in the garden, I believed they were hybrids between P. florindae and P. waltonii.
And so they might be, Magnar, but it is possible to get lots of colours, even when grown in isolation.

 All, as Lesley says, have the most delicious fragrance  8)
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Anthony Darby on July 13, 2008, 01:45:09 PM
I was right then. Florindae is yellow. ;D
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Paul T on July 13, 2008, 01:49:40 PM
Anthony... I think the gist of it is that florindae can be yellow.... just not exclusively (for reference I thought it was only yellow too!!  :o).  So you're only sort of right as your statement is still a bit too firm!!  ;)  So if you can waffle your statement a bit more (think politician here) you might just have it!!!  ;D
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Lvandelft on July 13, 2008, 05:36:23 PM
I hope this will help to clarify that it is possible to have other colour forms of Primula florindae.
Personally I have seen these other colours many years ago, but never was sure if it were hybrids or not.

What I do know is that the roots seem to inhabit substances which are very useful for cleaning hands when they are very dirty after working in some soils, or when dividing other plants like Erigeron when your fingers get totally nicotin brown from the roots.

Citating W. Wright Smith and H.R. Fletcher : Additions to the Genus Primula.
Notes RBGE XVI , 79..

This very robust species was one of the discoveries of Captain Kingdon Ward in 1924 in S.E. Tibet.
He records it from 4000 m. growing in shady bogs, by running water and even in the streams.
It appears to be abundant in many places in the basin of the Tsangpo and often in company with P. alpicola.
Tibetan species of this section hybridise in culture and there is clear evidence that they occasionally do so in their native haunts.
Their cytology suggests no impediment.
Plants otherwise similar to P. florindae have been collected with reddish amber flowers and this colour-change may or may not be due to crossing.

(Tsanang La near Paka [Ludlow Sheriff and Taylor, 5877]- form with reddish amber flowers)

But other specimens are apparently intermediates intermediates between P. alpicola and P. florindae.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Lesley Cox on July 13, 2008, 10:50:59 PM
I was right then. Florindae is yellow. ;D

Or orange or red etc. ;D

If they are hybrid forms this should be evident from the foliage. Florindae's foliage is consistently bright, glossy green, and short and almost rounded to heart-shaped. Plants with waltonii or alpicola would not be as highly polished or as short, even stubby, compared to florindae. I'd be very surprised if alpicola were involved in these orangey forms as it is, in my experience, always white, pale lemon (var. luna) or in deeper or paler shades of purple at the blue end of the range, i.e. indigo rather than towards reddish or magenta shades of purple. It is always a lot shorter than florindae too, and the orangey florindae forms are as tall as the yellow.
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Lesley Cox on July 13, 2008, 10:57:28 PM
Maybe we should be having this discussion on the Asiatic Primulas page?
Title: Re: It's surprising what you find and can't identify!
Post by: Joakim B on July 14, 2008, 11:07:02 AM
We have got orange-red seedlings from yellow plants and we only had vulgaris and veris in the garden so I do not think they were involved. These plants gave then orange seedlings. It seems to have the capability to be a bit orange. This may come from the plant we had that might have been a hybrid from the beginning but looked as a straight floridae.
Just to confuse things further.
Kind regards
Joakim
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