Digital Flower Pictures.com: Epimedium

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

ABC Wednesday – X

ABC Wednesday – X

Happy New Year to all! If you are visiting for WW please scroll down to the next post.

X is a tough letter. I decided to use one of the signs that mark the plants at the Estate garden. I tried to get cute with this picture and only get the X in focus. There about 700 of these signs and correspond to about half of the plant species and cultivars. I picked this sign since it has an X in the middle of the name. Without getting too technical (and a bit boring to some I sure) the X stands for a hybrid between two species of the same genera. These are generally natural or wild occurring hybrids and are ‘interspecific’. Hybrids that occur between different genera are more rare and are called ‘intergeneric’. They are usually denoted with the X before the first name, which is often a combination of the two genera. For example the intergeneric hybrid of Ammophila arenaria and Calamagrostis epigeios is known as xAmmocalamagrostis baltica.

This particular plant, Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum', is one of my favorite groundcovers. It got its X from being a hybrid of Epimedium grandiflorum and E. pinnatum subsp. colchicum (subsp. stands for subspecies, naturally occurring geographical variant of a species). This plant has several common names including Bishop’s Hat and Bicolor Barrenwort. It is a handsome plant that spreads well by rhizomes (not invasively) in both sun and moderate shade. The yellow flowers (that’s where the ‘Sulphureum’ comes in) are spurred and the petals, sepals and spurs are different shades of yellow. They bloom early and their bright color is welcome in the spring. Epimediums are getting more and more popular and there are several types that do well in the garden. I rummaged a round for a picture of the flowers but couldn’t find one. I will have to remember to shoot one in the spring.

Many of the Magnolias seem to like to hybridize and this one is Magnolia x Elizabeth. It was the first yellow Magnolia to be widely available and is still considered one of the best yellows. These pictures are from Wave Hill.