Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 13:18:34 +0200 (MET DST) From: gilles lardy <lardyg7@cti.ecp.fr> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2818$foo@default> Subject: Temperate Ping identification
Hi,
As some of you already know, I just come back from holidays where I've been
able to see plenty of cps, mostly pings. I've been to the "la vanoise"
national park which, for the ones who know a little of France's geography,
stands in the Savoie province.
I had never seen so many P. alpina before. Those were of the typical form
with two yellow spots, although a minority also had two more yellow stripes
on the bottom lip, but not as accentuated as the forms you can see on the
swiss border. I've even been to a place where those beauties were
overcrowding the banks of a stream on about hundred meters log. But what
astonished me the most was to discover that the ones which grew the most far
away from the stream seemed not to have this damp soil that pings often
appreciate, no running water on the roots. As I know that often in mountains
there can be running water a few centimeters under the surface whithout you
seeing it from the outside, I decided to dig a little to check it. No
running water, just normal and dry soil...whereas I thought that P. alpina
was a rupicole species. Any comments on that ?
I have also found a very nice form of what I think to be P. leptoceras,
due to the hairy lower petals. The flower from the spur to the upper petals
is purple, whereas the lower ones are white with a thin purple edge on the
outside, and light purple stripes going from the edge to the center of the
flower, it really looks great, especially with the white hairs on the deep
purple gorge, but what is even better than everything, is that more than
half of the flowers had the three lower petals doubled ! Yes, great flowers
with 2+2*3=8 petals !!! At first I thought that it may have been caused by
frost, which often provoques deformations, but the high rate of anormal
flowers, the fact that we were in mid july at approx. 1700m, and that the
anomaly could be found on flowers at different stages makes me wonder if it
would not rather be a mutation.
Has anyone ever seen such plants, am I right in identifying it as
leptoceras ? I have tried to use the pictures of the database to determine
wether it was or not, but none of these really matches... Anyway I've
collected a specimen which should soon give seeds.
Thank you in advance to all the pings specialists and non specialist who
will have ideas about that.
Gilles
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