LEWISIAS

[Michael J Campbell]

Thanks Luc,I try my best.

[David Nicholson]

Lewisia columbiana 'Alba'

[Lesley Cox]

That's a nice one David, very airy and delicate-looking.

[Paul T]

Glorious pics everyone.  Absolutely glorious.  What wonderful colours.  Here, despite it being winter, I still have a few flowers here and there on the basic Lewisias.  All are looking happy thankfully.  I've got signs of regrowth on one pot that was dormant, and got regrowth on another that was dormant, and have since lost almost all of them to rot.  I definitely have some fine tuning to do on the watering side of things.  Still, I live and learn (even if some of the Lewisias don't).    All of them are from seed from friends here in the forums, so I hope I can learn to do them justice.  This topic is just reminding me of how fantastic some of the colours are.  Thanks everyone.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I like that one David !!
If ever.... 

[Stephenb]

Could I have some expert opinions on these two:

1  Lewisia columbiana var wallowensis (note different colours from the same packet)
2  Lewisia leeana (from a nursery in Northern Norway)

[David Nicholson]

Hi Stephen, un-expert opinion herewith.

Taking the second one first. I haven't seen Lewisia leeana in the flesh, as it were, but having looked in "Lewisias" by Roy Davidson I don't think your is. I quote "L. leena is set apart from all others of it's genus by it's unique quill-shaped leaves, which persist through the year. Ira Gabrielson (1932) summed up it's overall appearance 'It amy be said to borrow the leaves of L. rediviva and the numerous small flowers of L. columbiana". I think your plant has probably a lot of cotyledon blood in it.

Back to you first one and I find this more difficult as it is not easy to tell from your pic how tall your flower stems are, and the shape of your leaves. Davidson says "But if the leaves are 3.5cm long and correspondingly narrow, with pointed tips........."

Maybe Michael Campbell will have ago.

[Michael J Campbell]

No 2 is a Cotyledon x Longipetala hyb.

Sorry,I put that the wrong way round ,should have said. No 2 is a  Longipetala x Cotyledon  hyb.

[Stephenb]

Many thanks for your quick feedback. Here's a couple of older pictures of the leaves on no. 1

[David Nicholson]

Stephen, I'm not sure, and you may just have to settle for it being columbiana full stop. The differences in the sub species seems to come down to a) the leaves; b) size of plant and leaves; c) where it is found in the wild.

I think I can do no better than quote in full from Davidson.

"... the leaves are less than 3.5cm long (3.5-10cm long and more than 8mm broad in columbiana columbiana) and correspondingly narrow, with pointed tips and lower bracts entire, the uppermost ones dentate but not glandular and petals are 5-8mm long and the plant is approx. 10-20cm in height (20-30cm and can be up to 50cm in c c); and is found in the vicinity of Hells Canyon of the Snake River in Wallowa County, Oregon and Idahoe County, Idaho, and sporadically at summits of highest ridges in Custer, Elmore, Lemhi and Valley Counties on the granitic Idaho batholith."

[Michael J Campbell]

 

[Tony Willis]

With regard to the Lewisia columbiana I think as usual these varieties are split on minor variations and if you were given a plant in a pot with no indication as to its origin then it could be any of them.

Here is Lewisia columbiana var columbiana on Blewitt Pass Washington. The flowers came in a variety of shades

[Stephenb]

Thanks, Tony! My plant was seed propagated from one of the seed exchanges, but it pre-dates when I started documenting origin of everything...

Thanks also to David N for the ID info - I also have a var columbiana. I can try keying them out next time they are in flower.

[ichristie]

Hi Stephen, I think your Lewisia no 2 is very like Lewisia Little Peach which is around in large numbers in the U/K it is a L. longipetala hyb produces good seed and flowers over a long period, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Stephenb]

Hmmm... Well, the first picture below is what I bought as Little Plum...It flowers a month earlier than my no.2 above (early June here against early July)

The second picture is a purported Lewisia leeana in a garden in Tromsø last summer. What do we think of this one, could it be the real Quill leaf (or is it something else entirely)?