Hi Dave,
I can’t help you much. I have old photos and no expertise. My photos that include the name ‘zaianicus’ don’t appear to be consistent. They have all been grown from seed so feel free to speculate on the accuracy of the process. I assume that some of these names haven’t been officially published.
Working backwards through the name N. romieuxii subsp. albidus var. zaianicus
to ‘albidus’ I have
I have a photos of albidus tananicus SBL18 but I note Daffseek has tananicus as a subspecies of cantabricus. It whitens as it ages.
Working back to romieuxii I have rifanus.
Lastly is romieuxii (Ufrane)
I haven’t maintained these collections but flowering right now is one that has crossed a decade or so as albidus albidus SBL249. Hardiness such as this suggests it should be crossed with cantabricus. Tried it and obtained some really nice things but nothing has survived and nothing has persisted through the pedigrees. Probably should try again.
The phrase ‘hybrids swarms’ seems to crop up a lot with the bulbocodiums. My guess is that there is no taxonomic perfection to be had.
Hello Lawrence,
Thanks for your photos and comments. I believe that we have two problems here in the Southern Hemisphere. Firstly we do not have direct access to people who have seen the species in the wild and know them and their variations intimately. Consequently we rely on our interpretation of photos and books or the advice of those who have grown the species for years.
Secondly we get our bulbs or seed second or third hand. There is no guarantee of the accuracy of what we get, especially from a seed exchange. Getting seed from someone with a reputation like Michael Salmon, as Graham has, means our seed is more likely to be named accurately.
With regard to your photos. What you show as romieuxii albidus zaianicus looks very similar to what Graham and I have so I’m happy to accept the accuracy of this. It still does not answer the question of a correct identification of the romieuxii that I first posted.
My tananicus is just finishing flowering. It looks the same as the one in your photo and I have it listed as N cantabricus tananicus. Your rifanus looks the same as mine. I love the lemon tonings of this one.
Quite frankly I have great difficulty distinguishing between all the forms of romieuxii and cantabricus that I supposedly have.
Dave