Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Seedy Subjects! => Seed Exchange => Topic started by: goatshed on May 19, 2010, 01:17:21 PM

Title: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: goatshed on May 19, 2010, 01:17:21 PM
If anyone (EU only) would like any seed I'll try to collect some, though I believe it can take up to ten years to flower (I don't know how true that is), and you also need some willow, alder or poplar trees to sow it against the roots. It likes moist woodland, will tolerate a small amount of sun - we have very boggy woodland here and have swathes of it.
If nobody wants any, it's worth posting a pic anyway as it's so pretty.
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: Lesley Cox on May 19, 2010, 10:56:45 PM
I have wanted this plant ever since I saw it at Sissinghurst almost 30 years ago. I even have the willows, alders and poplars, all ready to receive the seeds - BUT - it is not on our Bio Index!
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: Lesley Cox on May 19, 2010, 10:59:17 PM
YES IT IS! YES IT IS! But it wasn't, quite recently, so someone must actually be DOing something with the Biosecurity Index. I'll PM you immediately Gil. ;D ;D ;D
Oh damn, I see EU only. I'll contact a friend.
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: goatshed on May 20, 2010, 04:21:06 AM
Well, I put EU only as I saw it was on a list of weeds for NZ (so probably elsewhere as well), but you're probably more up to date with it than I am. I don't want to be responsible for a Japanese Knotweed type epidemic. We've got loads of Japanese knotweed in Creuse too if you want any (just kidding). :)
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: gote on May 20, 2010, 09:26:50 AM
I would certainly like to give it a try.
I have more elders than I care for.
Seeds would be very appreciated.
thank you for the offer
Göte 
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: Gail on May 20, 2010, 10:32:32 AM
Hi Gill, if you're not too inundated with requests, I'd love to try some.  There is a mill garden near here that has sweeps of it, including lots of the rare white form but sadly they seem to have stopped opening to the public.
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: goatshed on May 20, 2010, 11:11:12 AM
I'll certainly do my best to get some, I think the seed pods are explosive, so it's going to be a bit hit or miss. I had a look today, no sign of any yet.
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: goatshed on July 09, 2010, 12:08:42 PM
I finally managed to get a few seeds, they're real devils to collect, either not quite ripe or the pods have already exploded. I put a jar of seedheads in my propagator so the seeds would bounce off the walls when the pods exploded - that seemed to do the trick.
It works out at about 9 seeds each! I've no idea if they'll be viable, but if you haven't pm'd me your address already, please do.
Title: Re: lathraea clandestina - purple toothwort
Post by: goatshed on July 22, 2010, 04:36:00 PM
Sorry for the delay (busy time of year!) - I'll be posting tomorrow to the three that sent me addresses (and a PM to the fourth)
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