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From: "P.Bruggeman" <pbruggeman at WISH.NET>
Subject: Re: A. fargesii  to A. franchetianum?
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This is not an easy one to accept...fargesii and franchetianum as being t=he
same???????

fargesii blooms earlier (May in NC) and tends to clump
easily...franchetianum blooms later (late June-July) and doesn't clump
easily...not to mention the differences in leaf shape and thickness and t=he
spathe differences....what characters are you using to lump these two
together?

I haven't looked at the archives yet and I will be sure to do so...for no=w,
I'm suprised about the lumping of the species...are you publishing this
somewhere soon...we, in the world of nursery businesses, want to keep up
with what taxonomists present.


Dear Petra,

I can imagine this not being easy to accept but I am rather surprised abo=ut
the reactions considering the fact that Wilbert's initial mail about this
subject hardly resulted in any response. Regarding the clumping habit I c=an
say that every form I grow of franchetianum/fargesii
in my collection (and I grow 7 different clones in pots) is a good clumpe=r.
The minimal amount of bulblets per tuber each year is 4 but some clones
easily produce 12 bulblets per year. You must however realise that you ba=se
your opinion on the 2 clones you grow. With a species that is appearantly=as
widespread as franchetianum is, it is inevitable that the various clones
react differently depending on their specific habit in the wild so to me,
flowering time and clumping habit are cultural observations and not
taxonomic observations. I have been to Sikkim this spring and I have seen
speciosum-clones long past flowering and clones just coming into flowerin=g
eventhough they were growing only 50 miles apart and at the same altitude.
To be definitive about the status of species one needs to study the origi=nal
descriptions, study the holotypes (if possible) and make fieldobservation=s.
Particularly for that last part there is a big need and unfortunately not
enough people are making fieldobservations to get a better understanding =of
variation within a species. For that reason the status of most species is
still somewhat preliminary and our conclusion should be read as such. The
only thing we did was letting everybody know what our findings were and i=t
is enterily up to the collectors to go along with our findings or not.
Through the recent imports from China we finally get a glimpse of the
species that grow in China but it is obvious that the exporters try to fi=nd
extremes in populations in order to market as many "different" Arisaema a=s
possible. Only by mistake intermediate forms pop up but it is true that o=ne
has to presume the Arisaema coming in from China are not hybrids. For
various reasons however it doesn't seem likely to me they are hybrids.

Pascal