Re: S. purpurea subspecies venosa variety montana

From: Mellard, David (dam7@cdc.gov)
Date: Fri Oct 03 1997 - 05:16:00 PDT


Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 08:16:00 -0400
From: "Mellard, David" <dam7@cdc.gov>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3834$foo@default>
Subject: Re: S. purpurea subspecies venosa variety montana

Carl Mazur said,

>I'm still trying figure out the rationale for venosa and purpurea
distinction.

Me, too, but figured it was just my inexperience. I'm sure that's still
part of it. I like the Appalachian form simply because it has survived
in a rather unusual place, a seepage bog at the base of a mountain.
It's as if it was part of some long forgotten low-country bog that we
now find in the coastal southeastern US, but now millennia have past and
it's found itself having to adapt to a new niche: mountains. It says,
"I'm a tough little creature. Watch out!"

>... plants that deserve status, ie all the green "albino" forms of
>Sarrs. S. purpurea f. heterophylla is formally recognized, where is S.
>rubra jonesii f. heterophylla, S. psittacina f. heterophylla, S.
>leucophylla f. heterophylla etc etc etc.

Maybe we can get Jan to describe them somewhere as such <gr>

>While I'm on this thought, how about all the alatas, people are
splitting
>hairs on purps when alata is more variable than any other sarr!, and
yet,
>no ssp, no var's, no formas or anthing of the like.

I found a field of what I think are alatas in Mississippi. Some had
dark, red veined hoods while others had light green hoods with varying
degrees of white fenestration. I was trying to decide if I was looking
at normal variation in alatas or if I just couldn't tell the difference
between alata and rubra, or if I was looking at an alata x leucophylla
hybrid. There were no other leucophylla around except for one plant but
it looked more like a miniature leucophylla. Hoods from other plants
with fenestration had varying amounts of the fenestration.

>Maybe I should write a paper ;-)

Please do.

David



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