MB3Tropicos is neither comprehensive nor up-to-date. Most gardening
encyclopedias are even worse as botanical references. The GardenWeb is
garbage run by amateurs.

The genus Cistanthe has relatively recently been reinstated for a number of
New World species formerly placed in Calandrinia, Talinum, Calyptridium,
Philippiamra, etc. Taxonomically, it is a well defined and distinctive genus
in the Portulacaceae.

Cistanthe grandiflora is sometimes still offered as Calandrinia grandiflora
by a number of seed dealers.


Iris Cohen wrote in message
...
Can anyone tell me where Cisanthe grandiflora sits, taxonomically
speaking.

Although it is known by that name in the trade, I suspect that is not its
correct name. MB3Tropicos never heard of it; neither did GardenWeb. I
tried
IPNI, but it was broken. Judging from the picture of a flower I saw & your
description, it is rather primitive & close to the Tiliaceae. Some of the
large
plant encyclopedias tell you which family each plant belongs to.


Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so
much
that ain't so."
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), 1818-1885