Re: HIST: AUTUMN KING (and pumila)
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: HIST: AUTUMN KING (and pumila)
- From: T* T* L* <t*@rt66.com>
- Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 10:00:32 -0600 (MDT)
Sharon gives us an interesting look back through history with this quote
from Hans Sass--
:" . . . in breeding for fall-blooming iris we mark the pumila hybrids that
:bloom
:in the fall and cross these with Autumn King or any other iris that has
:fall-blooming charactestics.<snip>"
In interpreting Sass's remarks, please keep in mind that what was called
"pumila" in his time was ordinarily not the species Iris pumila, but rather
garden hybrids of the I. lutescens/olbiensis/chamaeiris ilk. These plants
more resemble our modern SDBs, both horticulturally and genetically, than
they do the true Iris pumila.
This was an unfortunate confusion, not completely cleared up to this day.
It stems from the practices of nurserymen who knew a little Latin and no
botany. Since "pumila" means "dwarf" they happily tagged any small iris
"Iris pumila", ignorant of (or indifferent to) the fact that Iris pumila is
but one of a dozen or so species of dwarf iris. This kind of thing is
becoming less of a problem in modern times, thankfully. It would be nice if
I could attribute the trend entirely to an increased knowledge of botany on
the part of nurseries, but an equally important factor seems to be that
knowledge of Latin is vanishing. Modern commercial nurseries seem to regard
the Latin names as unintelligible code, which is just mindlessly copied
from tag to tag. Not ideal, but preferable to random creativity. It's one
case where ignorance seems to be beneficial.
Cheers, Tom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Tadfor Little telp@Rt66.com
Iris-L list owner * USDA zone 5/6 * AIS region 23
Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA)
Telperion Productions http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iris-L Web Site http://www.rt66.com/~telp/garden.htm
