02 August 2012

Crocosmia

We are all familiar with the orange `Montbretia` as discarded clumps can be seen in laybys, wasteground and the like. By far the more common is Montbretia itself - Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora, but another, Crocosmia paniculata (`Aunt Eliza`) is increasing and becoming frequent. A third species, Crocosmia masoniorum (`Giant Montbretia`) was found last week at Furnace, Llanelli, perhaps new to Carmarthenshire. The photo shows all three, with (Left to Right), masoniorum first; paniculata in the middle and the familiar Montbretia last. Note that masoniorum are bigger plants with distinctive strongly-ribbed leaves. Also note the different grouping of the flowers with masoniorum and paniculata; the actual individual flowers differ too.

Ed: Ian, for ref, the map below shows how widely naturalised Montbretia now is in West Glamorgan, although Ive only seen 'Aunt Eliza' naturalised at one site. Useful id tips, thanks, Barry.

2 comments:

Ian Morgan said...

I should add that paniculata, like masoniorum, is also a big plant too....you can even pick them out from C. x crocosmifolia whilst driving by their larger size. As a rough rule, the common Montbretia is [very approx] 1ft in height whilst the other two are 2ft+. This larger size, coupled with the strongly ribbed leaves, are good field `jizz` tips. I`ve seen paniculata at c 6+ sites around Llanelli -and also beyond [saw it on the high ridge south of Brechfa a couple of weeks ago].

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