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Without any special reason, genera can creep up on me and I suddenly realise I have a yearning for them. I suppose I should have
been warned by the attraction to snowdrops, that their smaller relatives would also have the ability to enchant. So there I am, gormlessly looking through the plants on Tale Valley Nursery's stand at an NCCPG sale when I saw this lovely little flower and was filled with delight. Yes, it is Acis autumnalis. Yes, I have lots in the greenhouse. But don't you see, this one has brown scapes. BROWN SCAPES! I mean really, how could anybody possibly not notice. Not covet, not want. Not carry home gleefully? How could anybody? If I took myself as seriously as I take these tiny little scraps of vegetation, life would be a very different thing, but I think it would be less. I am still convinced that this is a distinct improvement on my other strain, but I have to admit that others have been more cynical. With a wide natural distribution it is not surprising that there is some variability. iNaturalist says: "Acis autumnalis, the autumn snowflake ... is found on the western shores of the Mediterranean, from Portugal, Spain and Morocco to Sicily and Tunisia. Its leaves are narrow, often seeming to form tufts, and usually only appear after the flowers. A. autumnalis flowers in late summer to autumn, with one to four flowers per stalk, each carried on a long, thin pedicel. The white tepals are 9–14 mm long, pinkish at the base, less commonly all pink. The outer three tepals are toothed. There is normally only one spathe at the base of the flowers." |
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| 8th September 2010 | ||
