Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 16:30:41 -0800 From: "Edward Read" <ay080@lafn.org> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3607$foo@default> Subject: Frost and Mexican Pinguicula
Hello All,
After finally finishing a long semester, I have time to read some digests.
Regarding Mexican pings and low temps:
I was in Oaxaca in January of this year. While traveling on route 175 from
Oaxaca City towards Tuxtepec (I stop in San Mateo Yetla) I saw frost and
frozen puddles of water just above Ixtlan de Juarez and up past the _P.
hemiepiphitica_ populations. The hemiepiphitica had large leaves. This is
the coldest I've seen the area comparing it to my past two trips along this
road at the same time of year. It was just a late winter.
Another note of interest to people traveling to Oaxaca. The new
ethnobotanical garden and library has plenty to look at. The library has a
wealth of books on Mexican flora. You can look at all the ping descriptions
in the Acta Botanica Mexicana collection. They had several pings (dormant at
the time) from the local mountains (all same sp.) that were collected when
they were collecing soil for the garden. I couldn't I.D. them in the dormant
state they were in.
At Alfred Lau's garden in Vera Cruz, Leo S. and I were amazed at the
beautiful collection of plants they have. All who have heard of the famous
Pinguicula wall can rest assured that it is indeed as spectacular as it has
been described. I can only imagine how beautiful it is when all the pings
are in flower. Anyone hear from Lau lately?
To maybe start a new thread of discussion, I'd like to talk about ping
flower scent.
I was amazed the first time I was shown the citrus-like scent of
_esseriana_. Leo has grown a Mexican ping for years that he calls agnata
CSUF, it has a musty/sweet fragrance. Ivan recently told me that in
coorespondence with Juerg the he says _P. longifolia_ (I hope that I
remembered this correctly) has scented flowers. I've noticed slight
fragrances on a few varieties of moranensis. Anyone ever compile a list of
sp. with scented flowers? I know that it sometimes takes having a group of
plants in flower to be able to notice. I guess that there are much more than
I'm aware of. I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Take Care,
Ed Read
Los Angeles, CA
tissueculture@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/tissueculture/
p.s. To all those waiting a response to their letters, I'm slowly digging
through a huge pile of mail. I've been fixated on several big projects and
papers the last few months. I apologize and beg your understanding.
Fernando, Let's go find the Venezuelan pings in summer 2001, I'll already be
down that way for work.
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