If you're new to this blog, you can start with the introduction here.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Moraea bellendenii


A late-blooming plant (May in California) that's relatively tall and has smallish yellow flowers. This plant is closely related to M. tricuspidata, which looks similar but has white to cream flowers. There are reportedly hybrids in the wild, and I wonder if they got mixed in with my plants, because the flowers that came to me as M. bellendenii range from cream to pale yellow to bright yellow.

Here's one of the pale ones:
If you have any thoughts on the identity of this plant, please post a comment.

These plants interbreed readily with the Peacock Moraeas, which is exciting because they'll let me add yellow, late-blooming, and height to my hybrids. I am finding that crossing with this species also does very weird things to the eyes of the Peacocks, turning them into concentric rings or irregular blotches. M. bellendenii also may be able to cross with M. polystachya, something that the Peacocks won't do. Those apparent hybrids have yet to bloom as of 2019.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Due to spam, I am now requiring moderation for comments on most posts. I apologize if your comment does not appear immediately; I will approve it as soon as I can.