| FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
4.
Variability - a warning when naming plants
To
those people who may be hoping to name their cultivated Adromischus
plants from the photographs on these pages, beware! Adro's are
notoriously variable, both between populations and within a single
population. The single photograph of each taxon in this web site cannot
convey the full range of forms to be found. And it is often the
extreme, unusual forms that are the most interesting to cultivate. It
can be impossible to identify an Adromischus with more precision than
to its section when habitat details are not
known e.g. the notorious DT3660, given to me at Kirstenbosch.
In
the veld, it is even more difficult to identify Adromischus, when they
are out of flower and only boot-high! Like Tölken, I have great
difficulty sorting A. liebenbergii from A.
triflorus around Matjiesfontein - they have the same leaf
shape. And I was completely fooled yet again on my last visit when at
Areb in Bushmanland, into labelling a section 1 plant as A.
nanus from section 3!
Another
page describes the variation within A.
marianiae.
Variability between six
different populations of A. alstonii in 2 3/4" (7 cm.) pots.
Variability within one
population: all leaves from A. alstonii at Leeupoort, N. Concordia.
Variation between different clones of A.
marianiae "antidorcadum", BM485 = Hall 2451 collected 10 miles S. of
Springbok in 1962, plants growing beneath small flakes of granite on
typical "smooth" domes. Plants & photos: Bryan Makin.
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