Bearded Species and Historic Clones: Conservation Thereof

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I am very concerned about the future of some of the material which has circulated informally under number, as well as the classic stuff from the MIS auctions, including any of the Simonet material which might survive from the Randolph collection. It is critical that we keep up with this material of documented provenance because without the actual plants to refer to, to examine, to test with various technologies as they become available, much of the seminal literature which forms the basis of our understanding of the genus is compromised. This is one reason I have been asking about a rhizome auction. Ideally someone with more land than I will take it upon themselves to round up the survivors and put in a row of venerable historic pogons, with the more interesting of the newly discovered clones----Greg darling, hi, Happy New Year, kiss kiss-- and let them just grow and grow, whether from a purely conservationist perspective, but selling them as they are needed, or maybe grow them for SIGNA, so SIGNA can sell them off, maybe?

 

Phil Edinger thinks he still has Simonet's trojana and will give me a piece when he can. Think about it! That is the Vilmorin trojana. There is no reason to feel complacent about that plant, we don't even really know where trojana was originally collected. It is another mystery iris, but how beautiful, how venerable, how critical to our knowledge not only of the development of the garden irises, or the literature thereof, but also to any understanding of the distribution patterns of the larger pogons through the Balkans, Asia Minor, and points east.

 

So, I think SIGNA should think on this, fast.

 

AMW 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Eleanor Hutchison <eleanore@mymts.net>
To: iris-species@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, Jan 1, 2011 2:28 pm
Subject: Re: [iris-species] Ostry White