Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: AndreasH on December 17, 2012, 10:44:38 PM
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Dear rock garden enthusiasts,
i´m new here in your excellent forum, but reading some time. I´m gardening in the surrounding of Berlin/Germany in a quite dry climate, not optimized for gems of high alpine origin. A lot of other gems do it, anyway. One of them is a little Brassiceae, bought as Barbarea rupicola "Sunnyola", a seed raised cultivar, originating from Corsica and Sardinia.
My plants give the same picture as a photo by alpinelover (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=7015.msg198573#msg198573).
But there are other pictures, in the forum and in many places of the web, showing this plant, for my impression, under the name Raffenaldia primuloides,
for example:
wrong determination? (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3412.msg88618#msg88618) or
wrong determination 2nd? (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Raffenaldia_primuloides_01.jpg).
Reading an old, but extensive description of the genus (Compendium florae atlanticae / 1883 (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36883702#page/330/mode/1up), p. 222/223, under the older synonym Cossonia), one would expect no branched stem and no raceme but flower stalks (pedicels) emerging directly from leaf axils.
In fact, this is to see here of Raffenaldia platycarpa (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=1610.msg40121#msg40121) pictured by Mick McLoughlin. Impressions of Raffenaldia primuloides are given by scanned herbarium specimen of the Paris Herbarium: P05353933 (http://sonneratphoto.mnhn.fr/2012/06/25/2/P05353933.jpg), P05353930 (http://sonneratphoto.mnhn.fr/2012/06/25/2/P05353930.jpg).
Can you help to end my confusion? Thanks
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Welcome Andreas !
I will be interested to hear what others think of the determination of these plants.
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For Cruciferae/Brassicaceae general its what they do in fruit that is often key to the identification.
General generic differences for fruiting between Raffenaldia and Barbarea
Raffenaldia - Fruits remain in the rosette the inflorescence appears not to elongate. The fruits at 2-4.5cm long and are square in cross section. But you can see the distinct edges to the fruit in the images below
[attachimg=1]
Barbarea - The inflorescence elongates in fruit. Fruit are 1.5-4cm long round or flattened in cross section.
[attachimg=2]
Probably no use for these images but might help in future.
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Thankyou for welcome and for valuable hints.
Meanwhile i´m quite sure, that the plants in question are Barbarea rupicola in fact. Analogous incorrect display as Raffenaldia primuloides is to observe across Europe, in private cultivation as well as in scientific botanical gardens.
One reason, what could have caused the mistake, is the compact growth, non typical for the genus and for the species. ( I´m not sure, if the cultivar "Sunnyola" is identical with Barbarea rupicola var. brevicaulis, recorded from Corsica growing in the wild, but I can imagine.)
I´d recommend to use shows and meetings for revision and to reduce the misunderstanding.