SPEC: "Minor" arillate species

From: Sharon McAllister <73372.1745@compuserve.com>

Message text written by Dennis Kramb:
>

Do you grow any of the non-onco and non-regelia species?  I forget their
classifications off the top of my head......somethng like pseudoregelia,
psammirises, and I know there's a 3rd group too.

I occasionally see seeds from those 3 "minor" aril groups offered by
rare/exotic/alpine seed catalogs, but never order it because (#1) I fear
it's mislabelled, and (#2) they're probably too difficult in my climate.

But I often thought it would be exciting to get arilbreds with this "other"
aril blood.
<


I have grown many of them, with varying degrees of success.  I, too, have
found mislabelling to be a serious problem in acquiring any arillate
species.

LURKER ALERT:  I have to provide some rather technical background to answer
the rest of this.

These "other" arillate aggregations [Hexapogon, Psammiris, and
Pseudoregelia]  have been reclassified so many times that they are now
surrounded by confusion.  When you encounter one of them, it's important to
know the reference system being used.

The easiest way I've found to explain the evolution of the classification
of arillate species is to write  five names on index cards and move the
cards around to depict the changing hierarchy.  If you want to try this,
add Oncocyclus and Regelia to the above three. 

Assuming you are most familiar with today's nomenclature, I'm going to
start with it and travel backward in time:

Mathew's system, currently the most widely used, recognizes five arillate
Sections:  Psammiris, Oncocyclus, Regelia, Hexapogon, and Pseudoregelia. 
[In this case, the cards are simply spread out in a horizontal line.]

In the modified Mathew system now used by ASI, only the Oncocyclus and
Regelia are classified as arils.    [Just take the other three cards away.]

The Lawrence system, used by ASI from 1990 to 1995,  divided the arillate
species into three Subsections:  Hexapogon, Oncocyclus, and Pseudoregelia. 
[Spread those three cards in a horizontal line.] The Regelia & Psammiris
were classified as groups in the Hexapogon Subsection.  [Place those two
cards underneath "Hexapogon".]

The system that ASI adopted for publication of its first Checklist [1976]
drew heavily on Werckmeister's system.  It defined three subsections: 
Oncocyclus, Regelia, and Pseudoregelia.  [Spread those three cards in a
horizontal line and place "Hexapogon" and "Psammiris" under "Regelia".]

By now, I hope you have the general picture:   arillate species form
natural aggregates that have been universally recognized, but different
experts define the relationships between those aggregates in different
terms.  

Yes, of course, there were earlier systems -- but this takes us back to the
creation of today's classification codes and thus strikes me as a good
place to stop the discussion of species and proceed to the topic of the
arilbreds derived from them. 

There have been a number produced from Hexapogon and Psammiris species.  If
you're searching for them, it helps to know that because Hexapogon and
Psammiris were considered Regelias when the classification codes were
developed their hybrids were coded as Regelia Hybrids and  the arilbreds
derived from them were coded as Regeliabreds.  

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any arilbreds derived from
Pseudoregelia species [perhaps someone else will recall an example and
chime in].   I do know that in its presentation of the new codes the 1976
Checklist stated "Because of the limited interest in and use of
pseudoregelias in hybridizing, no provisions for classifications have been
provided."

Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com

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