Re: collecting and conservation
- To: i*@Rt66.com
- Subject: Re: collecting and conservation
- From: C*@aol.com
- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 10:40:12 -0400
In a message dated 96-04-13 16:23:44 EDT, you write:
>The biggest enemy of species is bulldozers as the result of urban and city
>encroachment of habitat. The worlds greatest deposit of species Louisiana
>Iris is under New Orleans asphalt and concret.
>
>Robert Turley
>
>
And you might add, Robert, that the native habitats of MANY Florida irises
are now housing developments! Your point is very well taken! Phil Ogilvie
and I are particularly concerned about the native Florida irises...and if you
have found a white I. hexagona this is VERY IMPORTANT. Are you sure it is I.
hexagona?
One iris that I am very much interested in trying to find is Iris
albispiritus. Dr. John Small obtained some collected near Fort Myers Florida
in the 1920's, wrote the botanical description and published the description
along with a splendid rendering of it by Mary E. Eaton in Vol. 12, Nr. 1 of
the New York Botanical Gardens Addisonia. This iris has been discounted as a
species by other taxanomists, but that is not to say they are right and Small
was wrong. Anyone who sees the drawing of this white iris in the Series
Hexagonae will instantly see it does not look like any other species in that
Series. It has uniquely crisped and finely toothed sepal blades, finely
toothed style branches...totally unlike any other Hexagonae species. No
Louisiana iris came close to looking like it until the last couple of decades
of LA breeding. I wish you would search for this iris Robert...anyone who
finds it is going to make a great contribution to our knowledge and gene pool
of "Louisiana" irises (If Florida people had gotten more interested in irises
in the 1930's and 40's we would probably be calling Louisiana irises "Florida
irises"....but I am certainly not proposing changing things now....I don't
want all my friends in Louisiana hating me! Best regards, Clarence Mahan in
VA
