Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 10:47:52 +0100 From: steiger@iae.unibe.ch (Juerg Steiger) To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2837$foo@default> Subject: Re: Temperate Ping identification
Gilles
> 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. No
>running water, just normal and dry soil...whereas I thought that P. alpina
>was a rupicole species. Any comments on that ?
P. alpina is the only northern Ping. species with perennial roots. Its
roots are much longer than those of the other (sub)alpine and (sub)arctic
species, allowing P. alpina to grow at rather dry places, provided that the
relative air humidity is high enough (frequent fogs, dew at night).
Relatively dry substrate and wet air is a standard condition for many
alpine plants (relative air humidity increases when the mild winds coming
up from the valleys is cooled with increasing altitude). A very typical
Ping growing in such conditions is P. ramosa in Japan, which decays if the
substrate is to wet or even soggy. But as P. alpina it requires wet
winds/frequent fogs. In cultivation the rel. air humidity must be kept
between 70 and 100 percent.
> 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
>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.
If you have globular seed capsules it is P. leptoceras (P. grandiflora and
its forms have pear shaped or pointed capsules). P. leptoceras rather
frequently forms mutated flowers with 6-10 corolla lobes and additional
calyx tips, particularly in luxuriant substrates on silicate ground and in
mean altitudes (around 2000m). I think your site was calcareous and rather
low (1700m) which is a little surprising but P. leptoceras tends quickly
to luxurious flowers in certain conditions. In the south (Maritime Alps,
ca. 2000m ) P. leptoceras forms very pale blue flowers with large white
spots, in eastern part of Switzerland (Fex Valley) you'll find very dark
violet monocolour specimens with no white spots at all, i.e. its colour
range is quite impressive.
At common sites P. leptoceras (2n=32) hybridizes with P. vulgaris (2n=64).
Although it frequently occurs together with P. alpina (2n=32), hybrids with
the latter one were never seen. A common site of P. leptoceras and P.
grandiflora (2n=32) was not found until today.
Kind regards Juerg
________________________________________________
Juerg Steiger, Institut fuer Aus-, Weiter- und Fortbildung IAWF
University of Bern, Inselspital 37a, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland
Office: +41 (0)31 632 9887 Fax: +41 (0)31 632 9871
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