[aroid-l] the White Dragon bleeds

From: "Alan Galloway" alan_galloway at ncsu.edu> on 2003.04.29 at 03:15:16(10132) A few weeks back there was some discussion on the list about the white flowering form of Dracunculus vulgaris (which I included below). After 9 years of growing, what I had hoped would be this magnificent aroid, from seed it finally showed its true colors. See: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~alan/plants/aroids/dracunculus/drac-pg2/ What is pictured isn't quite as spectacular as the photos that Wilbert put on the IAS web site, but it's still worth the wait! Alan +More ----- Original Message ----- To: Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 9:23 AM Subject: Re: [aroid-l] Dracunculus "white form" > Steve, > I'm glad that you found this info in the archives, as I had planned to > search for this it. Like you, I also received some of these seed. > If I'm not mistaken, these 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 > > > > > 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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