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  Please help me with Arum IDs
From: "Pacific Rim" paige at hillkeep.ca> on 2005.08.23 at 21:31:59(13305)
Dear all: I have been struggling to give correct names to some Arums that
are new to me. Yes, "The Genus Arum" is on my Christmas list. But
meanwhile, if anyone would like to comment, on or offline, about the
identity of any of the Arums on my website at
http://www.hillkeep.ca/bulbs%20arum.htm, I would be grateful. I am open to
corrections on every ID, but the ones that particularly worry me at the
moment are:

-- "Arum aff. concinnatum." Should this be concinnatum?
-- all the A. dioscoridis group.
-- A. orientale. The photo is of the plant. But does it look like orientale?
If not, what do you think it is?

With thanks,

Paige Woodward

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From: "Peter Boyce" peterboyce at myjaring.net> on 2005.08.24 at 09:25:43(13308)
Hi Paige

cf concinnatum is concinnatum x cyrenaicum

dioscorides Spectabile Form is dioscorides var.
dioscorides

dioscorides var. cyprium is d. var.
syriacum

dioscorides var. cyprium Dark Form is d. var.
dioscorides

dioscorides var. philistaeum is aslo d. var.
dioscorides.

A. elongatum is A. nigrum

A. orientale and all other names are correct

Very best wishes

Pete

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From: "Pacific Rim" paige at hillkeep.ca> on 2005.08.25 at 03:50:58(13315)
To be corrected by Peter Boyce is a privilege.

I received your answer this evening, Peter. Thank you for your help.

Group, what do you think? Many horticultural selections of A. dioscoridis
have lost
their taxonomical distinction and been wrapped into one variable species.
Fine. But given that so many of the arums in horticulture are clones, is it
not perhaps useful to repeat their former names, e.g. "This is the plant
formerly known as var. spectabile"? Or does that just defer understanding
that variation is the norm?

As for my elongatum glitch: Thank you for confirming it, Peter. It's
interesting how the mind keeps sifting. Already by this
morning, my sleeping brain had signalled, "Ah-ooga, ah-ooga!" Looking at my
web page, I realized that I had mixed up the images of nigrum and elongatum,
and
reposted the page.

Peter, do other growers plague you with requests for names?

If my orientale is orientale, some of the other orientales online must be
something else.

I spent months in Borneo in the early 1980s, but was focused elsewhere.
Failed to differentiate the orchids or the
Araceae. Thought of them all as plants.

Paige Woodward

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From: "Peter Boyce" peterboyce at myjaring.net> on 2005.08.25 at 07:10:11(13316)
Hi Paige

Glad that I was able to be of help.

To tackle your points one-by-on:

dioscorides: The main problem is that in cultivation what folks
are calling, e.g., cyprium, mostly do NOT match the original A.
cyprium (which has a yellow-green spathe with discrete very deep purple
spots and no spathe staining/flushing) and thus there is a double problem with
scientific names are being misused as cultivar tags AND are being misapplied!The
neatest answer with A. disocorides will be to recognize cultivars for
the more distinct & stable colour expressions.

elongatum: when I looked yesterday there were no images of
true elongatum on your web - the images under nigrum
were nigrum. The crucilal elongatum character is that the
spadix appendix reaches to the tip of the spathe.

orientale: Most on-line images are NOT orientale. Some are
besserianum, some are gratum, a few are maculatum,
one or two are cylindraceum (the new name for alpinum),
yet others are italicum...

I get about a dozen identification requests a week by email and about the
same a month by letter. I LOVE doing ids. Keep 'em coming!

Very best wishes

Pete

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From: "Bryant, Susan L." SLBryant at scj.com> on 2005.08.25 at 12:08:48(13318)
Make mention of a former name?
I think it is useful. Newcomers to the Aroid world may be looking for
var spectabile and not realize it has a new name.
Your mention of it can help educate and perhaps boost sales. Nothing
but positive as I see it.
Susan

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From: "Pacific Rim" paige at hillkeep.ca> on 2005.08.25 at 21:16:27(13322)
Hello again, Pete. If the plant in my "elonagatum" slot is not elongatum,
what is it, please? For that matter, are the top picture and bottom one in
that slot of the same taxon? I was very surprised when the beautiful purple
creature in the lower picture emerged from the ground. The spadix reaches
almost to the top of the spathe in the upper photograph.

I have some young plants from seeds collected wild at several sites in
Turkey, sent by a generous stranger who had seen my web page. I will happily
submit pictures to you for ID as these plants mature.

Having blithely put your book on my Christmas list, I discover that it is
very hard to come by. I will inquire about this in a separate email.

Paige

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From: "Peter Boyce" peterboyce at myjaring.net> on 2005.08.27 at 05:39:56(13327)
Dear David

This seems to be Typhonium close to T. giganteum rather
than Arum but I would need to see the details of the lower spadix to be
sure. If you hace a sphotograph shoeing the interior workings I can be more
positive. There is currently only one Arum recorded for China - A.
jacquemontii from Tibet.

Very best wishes

Peter

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