T
tusker
Guest
I'm not sure how good an article this is. I've been through the ringer on this one with Joan Levy.
According to Joan, wilhelm does not exist in the United States, and everything called wilhelminea is actually gardineri (or a hybrid of gardineri and praetens). According to Joan and Dr Garay, if it has twisted petals its not wilhelm.
The article posted makes very little (if any) reference on where all these species are supposed to come from other than New Guinea. Cribb shows wilhelm coming from high elevation in New Guinea, and in situ pictures show a flower with twisted petals. Praetens or glanduliferum are from lowland New Guinea. It's hard to find any reference for a collection location for gardineri, but I did manage to find on local of an island off of New Guinea. I'm not sure if the description of gardineri was based on anything more than one herbarium specimen of unknown origin.
Subsequently, I hold to Cribbs taxonomy with wilhelm coming from the highlands, 1-2 flowers (rarely 3) and plant size on the order of 6-8 inches in span. The lowland species (either called praetens or glanduliferum) is a bigger plant, slightly paler flowers, and 3-4 flowers per spike.
Thanks for the info Rick. It's definitely one to keep the taxonomists busy.
Didn't the RHS hang on to lumping everything as glanduliferum (or praestans?) until fairly recently, thus adding to the confusion?
A true wilhelminae with straight petals would be very cool--like a mini roth.