It appears in this photo that the soil is extremely poor as to soil nutrients since there is little to no competition from weeds.
Either that or sheep have over grazed this area.
I am guessing that the soil is mostly sand that will hold little nitrogen. Depending on the depth of these wild bulbs would determine the soil nutrients down deeper that the roots can pull up.
This would affect the numbers of blooms and the height of the blooms and over all foliage height.
Maybe Harold can chime in here with the numbers of blooms he can normally get on n. Miniatus there in California.
Good weather here in Texas. Keith Kridler
Keith: you are only partially correct. Flower number, size and height appear to be genetic. Does not make much difference with the type of soil, how well they are fed etc. Some populations have mainly singles but other populations will have more bearing more 2-5 flowers on the stalk. We have selected for some really tiny short ones i.e. SFR (=small. flat, round) as well as others that are larger but I have been more interested in flower form than flower #. By the way there is no foliage. Only flower stems, with or without flowers. The parts that make bulb scales are leaf bases that never make leaf blades.
There is no competition from weeds because this they are flowering at the end of the very dry summers.
cheers Harold
At 03:26 AM 10/22/2008, Keith Kridler wrote:
It appears in this photo that the soil is extremely poor as to soil nutrients since there is little to no competition from weeds.
Either that or sheep have over grazed this area.
I am guessing that the soil is mostly sand that will hold little nitrogen. Depending on the depth of these wild bulbs would determine the soil nutrients down deeper that the roots can pull up.
This would affect the numbers of blooms and the height of the blooms and over all foliage height.
Maybe Harold can chime in here with the numbers of blooms he can normally get on n. Miniatus there in California.
Good weather here in Texas. Keith Kridler
Keith
I am a little late with my answer. Most things have been said by other experts. You are right, the soil consists mainly of sand . The nitrogen content has been a little increased by horses, which have been in this area some time ago. I think the influence of nutrification on the number of flowers per stem is small; the main influence is surely genetic, as Harold wrote. The number of flowers per stem in this population is in most cases one, maximal two. Yesterday I saw another population with three to five flowers per stem.
Keith: you are only partially correct. Flower number, size and height appear to be genetic. Does not make much difference with the type of soil, how well they are fed etc.
Some populations have mainly singles but other populations will have more bearing more 2-5 flowers on the stalk. We have selected for some really tiny short ones i.e. SFR (=small. flat, round) as well as others that are larger but I have been more interested in flower form than flower #.
By the way there is no foliage. Only flower stems, with or without flowers. The parts that make bulb scales are leaf bases that never make leaf blades.
There is no competition from weeds because this they are flowering at the end of the very dry summers.
cheers
Harold
At 03:26 AM 10/22/2008, Keith Kridler wrote: