Naming caution

[Greg Ruckert]

The discussion re: "Arisaema du-bois-reymondiae" scares me a lot.  One of
the motivations behind establishing the Australian Areae Collection was the
problems encountered in the Nursery Trade in Australia.  Mis nomenclature.
It is a worldwide
problem.  No better example exists than Madan Tamang!

I strongly believe that all discussion involving material from Kaichen
should include the NUMBER that it was bought under rather than a name.  Once
material can be positively identified then we should use the name that we
KNOW is correct.  Chen Yi admitted that they need help to identify the
species that they are selling.  Everyone on the group should understand the
difficulties associated with trying to achieve correct nomenclature for our
favourite plants.  Our experience is showing that the photographs supplied
by
Kaichen are not necessarily lining up with the material when it flowers.  We
have just had A4 flower and are so pleased that we now have the true
Arisaema candidissimum in cultivation in Australia.  It is nothing like the
picture supplied by Kaichen (or for that matter the description that Chen Yi
gave me when I was selecting tubers).

What concerns me most is material getting into the "trade" with the wrong
names.  We have already seen nurseries in the USA offering material under
Kaichen's names then saying that they are probably not correct.  Once seed
of this material gets onto the AEG distribution I hope it will not be a case
of making the problem worse.  One thing we should be guilty of is "doing it
right".

Greg Ruckert
Australian Areae Collection
http://www.ezi-learn.com.au/areae/default.html
-----Original Message-----
From: George R Stilwell, Jr. <grsjr at JUNO.COM>
To: ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
Date: Tuesday, 27 April 1999 22:46
Subject: Re: A. du-bois-reymondiae


>Bobbie,
>
>Nice to hear that my description fits your plants and Jim's too.
>
>Sorry, mine are both female as well, so no pollen here.
>
>How about treating some of the plants very well and stressing others by
>withholding water
>so that next year you have both male and female plants?
>
>I don't know the durability of Arisaema pollen. Hopefully it will retain
>viability at low
>temperatures, but I haven't seen any research on the subject.
>
>Ray
><GRSJr at Juno.com>
>------------------------------------
>Bobbie Lively-Diebold wrote:
>
>Dear Ray,
>
>Your description of A. du-bois-reymondiae was excellent.  The three I
>bought under that name are the same as your description.  The ones I saw
>in Ann and Jim McClement's garden also fit your description.
>
>Another question:  All three of my plants are female.  How long is
>arisaema
>pollen viable and does some one have male pollen so that I can set seed
>for
>the AEG seed exchange?  Would the pollen still be viable if sent through
>the mail?  Last year many of my arisaema species were all female--
>without
>any males, no seed.
>
>Many of my arisaemas were stressed by last years drought and have bloomed
>as males this year.  I'll try some hybrids within the same arisaema
>sections and hope for the best.
>
>My garden was on the Virginia Historic Garden Tour last Friday.  I potted
> 3 arisaemas,
>A. ringens, A. sikokianum and A. thunbergii urashima, and
>displayed them on a patio table for folks to see.  People were quite
>interested.  Other than the common yet beautiful jack in the pulpit, most
>folks are not familiar with them in this area .  They must not read
>garden
>catalogs!
>
>Bobbie
>---------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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