Kay wrote in message
...
In article , p00kie
writes
Stinking Hellebore by the looks ... see he
http://flood.nhm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fff/g...lora.%5BFloraN
o%5D=1670
0
That was my first thought, from leaf shape, flower shape and colour.
But stinking hellebore (H. foetidus) has a purple edge to the inside
of
the 'flowers'
see
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/images...s_foetidus.jpg
and I couldn't see that on the pic, so I wondered H viridis? - but I'm
not familiar with that.
H viridis also looks cruder in leaf shape, from, eg
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/pyrenees1.htm
so I'm just not sure. Some of the other H foetidus pics on the web
don't show the purple edge, eg
http://www.turning-earth.co.uk/shade.htm
but then web identifications aren't always reliable ;-)
The nhm url that pookie gives should be reliable, and that shows the
purple edge if you look closely, but very much less obviously than the
url I gave.
Stace, which is the standard flora from UK flowers, doesn't mention
the purple edge as diagnostic, so perhaps it is variable.
Does it mention purple or purplish leaves? see below.
He also refers to
the flowers as flowers not bracts so I was wrong there! - but they're
not delicate petals as we know them, they last right through to seed
formation.
Stinking hellebore gets its name from the smell of the foliage when
crushed, so that's one thing to try - admittedly I've never done that
with mine so I can't tell you what it smells of!
Hi all, long time no type :-) I am intrigued by this thread, because I
have a hellebore very like this one in my garden so was interested to
see what you all came up with. Mine has greener leaves than the
H.foetidus in the pictures, but not broader leaves like the H.viridis.
It doesn't have purple tinges to the petals. Have just been out and
crushed a bit and it doesn't stink either. So I'm not convinced that it
is either of those.
A quick web search hasn't found anything any more likely though......
--
Holly, in France.
Holiday home in the Dordogne,
website:
http://la-plaine.chez.tiscali.fr