Ledebouria
 

There are no Ledebouria species native to China.

Show me this link to which you allude.

Ledebouria violacea is actually the form of Ledebouria socialis with dark
green leaves with purple undersides and should be considered just a cultivar
as Ledebouria socialis 'Violacea'. Ledebouria socialis is extremely variable
in leaf width and coloring and several different selections of it are now in
cultivation. It is one of the few species in the genus with epigeal bulbs.

Ledebouria revoluta is the most widespread species in the genus and is found
throughout Africa, the Arabian peninsula and India and now has many
synonyms.


Beverly Erlebacher wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
Cereoid-UR12 wrote:
Not a Ledebouria. The flowers are not orchid-like and they have all six
tepals recurved.

More likely its a Lachenalia.
Its a big genus with many species and cultivars now in cultivation.
Many of the species have maculate leaves.


http://www.bulbsociety.com/GALLERY_O...CS/Lachenalia/
L
achenalialist.html

Thanks for the link. Dunno about Iris's plant, but mine looks very much
like Ledebouria revoluta pictured there (click on the image of the raceme
to see a bigger pic with leaves). The Lachenalias seem to have much more
showy flowers. I'll have to take a magnifying glass to the flowers on my
plant tonight! (Replace Lachenalia with Ledebouria in above URL or just
browse the site, but wait until you've gotten all your work done first.)


http://images.google.com/images?q=la...=en&btnG=Googl
e
+Search

Both genera are primarily African but Ledebouria is also found on
Socotra,
the Arabian peninsula and in India.

According to one of the Ledebouria links, there's even a Chinese species.
Also, Ledebouria violacea seems to have been renamed L.socialis, or
L.sociaris according to a Japanese site. ;-)

Ledebouria
 

In article ,
Cereoid-UR12yo wrote:
There are no Ledebouria species native to China.

Show me this link to which you allude.

I'll take your word for it. It would be biogeographically unlikely, so it's
probably one of those misunderstandings based on someone n plant generations
ago getting the plant from someone in China.

Ledebouria violacea is actually the form of Ledebouria socialis with dark
green leaves with purple undersides and should be considered just a cultivar
as Ledebouria socialis 'Violacea'. Ledebouria socialis is extremely variable
in leaf width and coloring and several different selections of it are now in
cultivation. It is one of the few species in the genus with epigeal bulbs.

Okay. I guessed that since it was once Scilla violacea, it was L.violacea
for a while before it became L.socialis. As all of us are well aware, an
obsolete synonym can hang around for decades outside the scientific literature.

I'd like to recommend this plant as attractive, unusual, and very easy to
grow, even under conditions it doesn't like. Even the etiolated form, growing
in a northwest window at 43 degrees N looks pretty good. It also tolerates
quite a lot of neglect -- you can forget to water it, and if you don't
transplant or divide it, it happily just extends more bulbs right out into
the air over the edge of the pot. You can just yank off a handful of these
to give away.

Ledebouria revoluta is the most widespread species in the genus and is found
throughout Africa, the Arabian peninsula and India and now has many
synonyms.

Does it also have epigeal bulbs? The plant I have seems to. Any advice
on cultural requirements? Any refs on this genus and related ones?

I had a closer look at the flowers. The three outer tepals are slightly
longer than the inner three, and open wider. One pistil, six stamens,
superior ovary. Flower buds, ovary and pistil white, everything else
green. Altogether far more lily-like than orchid-like, and even less
showy than L.socialis.