Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!hogpc!sam From: sam@hogpc.UUCP (D.LEWAN) Newsgroups: net.garden Subject: Ornithogatum caudatum Message-ID: <457@hogpc.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 08:58:28 EDT Article-I.D.: hogpc.457 Posted: Mon Sep 24 08:58:28 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 05:42:38 EDT Lines: 52 Three years ago at the modest investment of $.25 on two unusual small plants. At the time I was told they were "pregnant onions". I had never seen another until yesterday. In fact, I had never been able to identify them properly until then and still only know the name. The proper name is "ornithogatum caudatum", if I've remembered correctly, and it is also known as the "false sea onion". I'd like to ask anyone with more knowledge about this plant to pass some on to me. They have a bulbous base, ranging from a very young 1/2" across to 2" or 3" when grown. Foliage is green, about the color of begonia semperflorens, with leaves (by now) up to 4' long and about 1" wide. Their primary form of reproduction is vegitative by pushing tiny bulbs out through the skins of the parent bulb and into the soil. The can flower, though, and do so in the springtime. Their flowers form in one large sparse and conical cluster at the end of a stem growing from the center of the bulb. The stem can also be as long as 4'. Its flowers are not attractive.* Even best efforts can't kill it. I left town for two weeks this summer, height of heat, hadn't watered them for a week and left them in the sun. Upon return the bulbs had obviously lost some water but the plants were far from dead. Overwatering doesn't kill them either. By the way, I was overjoyed when I found a similar plant at the botanical gardens in Copenhagen. It had a bulbous base, similar reproductive habits and a very similar flower structure. I thought I could certainly find out more now! I couldn't. That plant was labeled "albucca" (genus, I believe) and comes from South Africa. I'd also like to learn more about albucca and how, if at all, it is related to ornithogatum. __________ * On the other hand if you cut them off, it takes the stem forever to die away and it'll still have the energy to put up another.