Re: [aroid-l] Dracunculus "white form"

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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