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Cyrtanthus mackenii ssp. cooperi



Archive entry 07.02.16

3rd May 2009


This is the yellow flowered subspecies. I should probably have grown it from seed, but I actually bought the bulbs from Forde Abbey nursery.

3rd June 2011




25th February 2016


The taxonomy of the species has been confused over the last few decades. This plant came to me as C. m. var. cooperi. In 2007 D. A Snijman redefined the variability within the species and concluded that plants traditionally grown as "var. cooperi" were actually part of the variation within C. mackenii ssp. mackenii and not included in the new definition of C. mackenii ssp. cooperi. The distinctions are currently too subtle for me to determine. My plant seems to have characters that fall in both camps (semi-evergreen, occasionally recurved tepals) so I am retaining the name with the proviso that it could all be hogwash.

8th April 2018