Dracunculus "white form"

From: "Benoit Mouroux" bmouroux at hotmail.com> on 2003.02.18 at 15:54:28(9996) Hello all, could anybody help me for my search for dracunculus vulgaris "white form" ? this form is from "cr?te", a mediterrannean island and seems to be very hard to find. benoit +More france Benoit MOUROUX 30, rue thibaudeau 86000 POITIERS FRANCE http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Amorphophallus_et_araceae/ _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?pageþatures/junkmail

From: "Wilbert Hetterscheid" hetter at worldonline.nl> on 2003.02.19 at 17:53:49(10000) Finding is one thing, looking at it another : go to the Dracunculus pages on the IAS website. The form is yellow, by the way. If you go to Crete, contact me. I know where it grows. Lord Secret +More > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu > [mailto:aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu]Namens Benoit Mouroux > Verzonden: dinsdag 18 februari 2003 16:54 > Aan: aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu > Onderwerp: [aroid-l] Dracunculus "white form" > > > Hello all, > > could anybody help me for my search for dracunculus vulgaris > "white form" ? > > this form is from "cr?te", a mediterrannean island and seems > to be very hard > to find. > > benoit > france > > > Benoit MOUROUX > 30, rue thibaudeau > 86000 POITIERS > FRANCE > http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Amorphophallus_et_araceae/ > > _________________________________________________________________ > Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?pageþatures/junkmail >

From: "Deni Bown" deni at yaxhampark.co.uk> on 2003.02.21 at 17:41:18(10007) Could I just add that it's always been a mystery to me why this magnificent aroid isn't in cultivation. I came across a sizeable colony of the pale form near some polytunnels of tomatoes (i.e. on waste cultivated land) and they were simply gorgeous - very tall plants with huge spadices, some uniformly pale green with either black or yellow spadixes, and others were variously piebald maroon and pale green. Though described by Huxley & Taylor in Flowers of Greece and the Aegean (1977) as "white-flowered", there were no white spathes (or yellow ones)among the ones I saw, though perhaps others colonies show other variants. I have no idea how common this form is, or whether the colony I came across still exists. Years ago someone read my account of this variant in my book (Aroids - Plants of the Arum Family) and contacted me for the location so he could bring back some seed. He promised me some seed in return for the info but I never heard from him again..... There really should be a serious attempt to introduce the pale form into cultivation. If anyone has, or is likely to have seed, PLEASE let me know! Deni Bown +More -----Original Message----- [mailto:aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu]On Behalf Of Wilbert Hetterscheid Sent: 19 February 2003 17:54 To: aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: [aroid-l] Dracunculus "white form" Finding is one thing, looking at it another : go to the Dracunculus pages on the IAS website. The form is yellow, by the way. If you go to Crete, contact me. I know where it grows. Lord Secret > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht----- > Van: aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu > [mailto:aroid-l-owner@lists.ncsu.edu]Namens Benoit Mouroux > Verzonden: dinsdag 18 februari 2003 16:54 > Aan: aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu > Onderwerp: [aroid-l] Dracunculus "white form" > > > Hello all, > > could anybody help me for my search for dracunculus vulgaris > "white form" ? > > this form is from "crjte", a mediterrannean island and seems > to be very hard > to find. > > benoit > france > > > Benoit MOUROUX > 30, rue thibaudeau > 86000 POITIERS > FRANCE > http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/Amorphophallus_et_araceae/ > > _________________________________________________________________ > Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?pageþatures/junkmail >

From: Steve Marak samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 2003.02.25 at 06:36:05(10012) Deni, I finally had a moment to go back through old disk files ... in 1994, a then-member of Aroid-L was able to distribute some wild-collected D. vulgaris seed from Crete (along with Arum purpureospathum). He sent quite a large amount, collected from a number of populations. Some populations were, or had plants of, the color variants. The seed was a mix of what was available, since of course at seed time he didn't know for sure what plants were of the unusual forms. I personally didn't get great germination from them, and none of the surviving plants appear to be anything but the ordinary form - about the same as the "heirloom" plants I already had. Has anyone else had better luck with them? Below is a paragraph he posted at the time about them: "I know of a healthy population in S. central Crete in the S.-facing mouth of a large limestone gorge. Here the Dracunculus grows among small trees and on stony, almost scree-like limestone slopes at about 500 m altitude. These are hot, Mediterranean conditions. Some plants have the normal dark purple spathe and spadix, whereas others have an entirely creamy white spathe but the normal dark purple spadix. The odd few are intermediates with mottled spathes and orangey spadices. I saw these in flower in April 1989 and later collected seeds in July 1994. Subsequently, these seeds were distributed among various subscribers to Aroid-L (together with Arum purpureospathum, also from Crete), and news of their progress appears from time to time (any more news?). Unfortunately, I do not know of a commercial source for the white form." Steve +More On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Deni Bown wrote: > Could I just add that it's always been a mystery to me why this magnificent > aroid isn't in cultivation. I came across a sizeable colony of the pale form > near some polytunnels of tomatoes (i.e. on waste cultivated land) and they > were simply gorgeous - very tall plants with huge spadices, some uniformly > pale green with either black or yellow spadixes, and others were variously > piebald maroon and pale green. Though described by Huxley & Taylor in > Flowers of Greece and the Aegean (1977) as "white-flowered", there were no > white spathes (or yellow ones)among the ones I saw, though perhaps others > colonies show other variants. I have no idea how common this form is, or > whether the colony I came across still exists. > ... > > There really should be a serious attempt to introduce the pale form into > cultivation. If anyone has, or is likely to have seed, PLEASE let me know! -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

From: "Alan Galloway" alan_galloway at ncsu.edu> on 2003.02.25 at 13:23:44(10013) Steve, I'm glad that you found this info in the archives, as I had planned to search for this info. Like you, I also received some of these seed. If I'm not mistaken, theses seed were dispersed by Mr. Nick Turland. Perhaps he could comment if he is still on the list. I did have good germination and still have 5 tubers growing in the garden. I'm hoping that 1 or 2 of them may bloom this spring. The petioles are much lighter in color than the normal form, although I don't know if this could be indicative of flower color. Alan +More > > I finally had a moment to go back through old disk files ... in 1994, a > then-member of Aroid-L was able to distribute some wild-collected D. > vulgaris seed from Crete (along with Arum purpureospathum). He sent quite > a large amount, collected from a number of populations. Some populations > were, or had plants of, the color variants. The seed was a mix of what was > available, since of course at seed time he didn't know for sure what > plants were of the unusual forms. > > I personally didn't get great germination from them, and none of the > surviving plants appear to be anything but the ordinary form - about the > same as the "heirloom" plants I already had. Has anyone else had better > luck with them? > > Below is a paragraph he posted at the time about them: > > "I know of a healthy population in S. central Crete in the S.-facing mouth > of a large limestone gorge. Here the Dracunculus grows among small trees > and on stony, almost scree-like limestone slopes at about 500 m altitude. > These are hot, Mediterranean conditions. Some plants have the normal dark > purple spathe and spadix, whereas others have an entirely creamy white > spathe but the normal dark purple spadix. The odd few are intermediates > with mottled spathes and orangey spadices. I saw these in flower in April > 1989 and later collected seeds in July 1994. Subsequently, these seeds > were distributed among various subscribers to Aroid-L (together with Arum > purpureospathum, also from Crete), and news of their progress appears from > time to time (any more news?). Unfortunately, I do not know of a > commercial source for the white form." > > Steve >

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