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I am not a fan of hybrids and variegated plants...
In my humble opinion there are already enough ugly little monsters about and people should try to focus on propagation species true plants if possible.
But I understand: few collectors have several clones of the same species, let alone of the same locality or form. And one wants to be creative! it's like playing the lottery: you never know you might win the big one!
Hybrids and cultivars
Hybrids and cultivars
To avoid Gasteria soup there are only three ways:
from leaf/cuttings: this gives an exact clone of the motherplant
by crossing two true species plants of the same species and preferably of the same form/locality
with tissue culture: also gives exact clones, but beyond the means of most collectors
Plant populations usually avoid hybridization by physical distance with another species or by flowering at a different time.
A hybrid is a genetic cross between species A x species B = infrageneric hybrid.
If the hybrid is Genus A x Genus B = intergeneric hybrid.
Of course a hybrid can be further hybridized with other plants = complex hybrid.
A cultivar is a selected plant: amongst a batch of seedlings or even from a wild population, one selects the most interesting/beautiful one. I believe that as collectors unconsciously we all do that. It is an 'unnatural selection'. Hybridisation and cultivars go hand in hand.
Some plants are discribed in a CV (curriculum vitae)
And so this has given us some very commercial horticultural plants of which I will present some here. Beauty, however, is in the eye of the beholder...
there are already to many hybrids around!
Gasteria "Mabel", a complex Gasteria hybrid by Gerhard Marx
a Gasterworthia...
Gasteria x Haworthia
G. "Haku-gei", a Japanese hybrid and cultivar. Parentage lost in the mists of time, but probably armstrongii in there
G. "blue ox" a plant produced by Rick Kowakowski USA.
Probably some excelsa in the mix.
Gasteria "Little Warty", a real money maker for the horticultural trade.
Parents = G "Old man Silver" x batesiana
NOT a hybrid: G. pillansii var. pillansii "Krakadou", a naturally variegated form occuring in nature
G. "Kyo ryu" a Japanese hybrid.
Haworthia convention show plant.
Mystery plants
Mystery plants
I have a number of plants of which I know very little or of which I have doubts. What are they? true species or a hybrid?
GA203 bought from Petr Pavelka
GA203 bought from Petr Pavelka
data on label:
IB9990, Kouga dam, elongated leaf form of Ellaphiae, ex Ernst Specks
observations:
leaves thin and 15cm long, they have clear tubercles, plant splits readily from the base. Flowers definitively Section Longiflorae, series Multifariae.
what?
ellaphiae doesn't have these erect leaves, but has similar flowers.
My guess, it's a hybrid X carinata var. verrucosa.
GA415 ex Plantentuin University Gent
GA415 ex Plantentuin University Gent
data on label:
1900-2623B, 'angustifolia', Z Kaapprovincie
observations:
robust plant, 30cm wide, leaves asperulous, margin at top with numerous white teeth. upper leaf surface with two prominent keels (ridges). Plant distichous. Flowers as yet unseen
what?
could it be a disticha? too large, the ridges are not compatible with disticha. Probably a garden hybrid with some excelsa in the mix, but than would it remain distichous?
notes
the University of Gent botanical garden has a very old collection but all written data were lost at one point. So this plant remains a mystery
GA201 ex ELK 2017
GA201 ex ELK 2017
data on label:
nothing
observations:
rozette, 20cm wide, leaves smooth and shiny, faint subcutaneous spots. Flowers Section Longiflorae, section Multifariae.
what?
could it be a tukhelensis? very similar leaves, but no, flowers are too small for that one. G. nitida could be a possibility
notes
looks a bit like a cross between excelsa and nitida
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