Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 13:10:31 -0500 (EST) From: L235@aol.com To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg4537$foo@default> Subject: Re: Sarracenia forms
Niels Asger Nielsen writes:
<<I have noticed that within the Sarracenia genus there is a long list of =
different forms within the same species. Phil Wilsons long list of seeds =
from different Sarracenia forms that was posted to this list recently, =
illustrates that point. Is the Sarracenia genus special in this way?>>
As of recently, I believe, there were only three (possibly four) legitimate
subspecific designations for S. purpurea: S. purpurea purpurea, S. purpurea
venosa, and S. purpurea purpurea f. heterophylla. Don Schnell also commented
in a 1979 botanical journal (Castanea) that the horticultural variety "Louis
Burke" might also someday be a legitimate designation for the pink-flowered
S. purpurea venosas found along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Since then,
additional varieties have been discovered and named, at least informally: S.
purpurea venosa f. heterophylla (at least according to the Atlanta Botanical
Garden), S. purpurea "montana" (also discovered and named by ABG, although I
can't recall at the moment whether or not it is subspecies venosa or
purpurea. It is the mountain form found in the mountains of north Georgia and
far western North Carolina, in S. rubra jonesii bogs and elsewhere, I
believe.). There are also "veinless" forms of S. purpurea venosa in
cultivation, and a soon-to-be-published account of a veinless form of S.
purpurea purpurea (big grin to Carl Mazur) discovered in Canada.
Most of the "forms" you see listed in seed catalogs or grow lists are, in my
humble opinion, simply descriptive differences designed to help potential
buyers distinguish between plants: S. alata "red tube", "copper top", "heavy
veined", etc. I do the same thing with the hundred-odd Sarracenia plants I
grow. Few if any of the descriptive references I use would be considered
legitimate varieties or forms, I think.
In the wild, Sarracenia populations are highly variable ... one large bog of
S. flava in North Carolina, for instance, can hold dozens of distinct
differences in coloration, venation, size, growth habit, etc.
Sorry for the long-winded response.
Jay Lechtman (L235@aol.com)
"People who live in glass houses should grow CP."
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