Pic of the Day--longissima

Hank Zumach · Post by **Hank Zumach** » Dec 05, 2007 12:07 pm

Hi All--My hostaholism has not required me to get into many aspects of the more technical aspects of botany. But I do know that today's variety, longissima, is a species. (for those interested, the Hosta Library gives a short narration concerning a naming controversy about this plant) That makes it one of the small number (the exact number is a matter of heated debate among the botanist pros) of hostas that are naturally occurring plants that produce identical offspring. (I hope that definition is reasonably accurate) As a species, its name is spelled in the lower case. We got our plant in 2003 and have it planted in a spot that does not get direct sun. It is an easy plant to walk by without noticing. Its measurements have been 11x4, 16x6, 19x11, 24x12, and 27x12, considerably bigger than Lemke's listing of 9x6 and "small".

Registry - not registered as of Nov. 2012
MyHostas - http://myhostas.be/db/hostas/longissima
Hosta Library - http://www.hostalibrary.org/l/longissima1.html
http://www.hostalibrary.org/l/longissimabrev.html
http://www.hostalibrary.org/l/longissima.html

The pix are from 2003 and 2007.

sugar · Post by **sugar** » Dec 05, 2007 2:04 pm

I have it here too.
OK it doesn't scream for attention with vivid colors, but I love it.

sugar

Hank Zumach · Post by **Hank Zumach** » Dec 06, 2007 6:34 pm

Hi All--There have been several postings on the pixlist concerning whether the plant I called longissima was that or something else. Here is what W. George Schmid wrote to me in a private message that he then said I could post here.

Hi Hank,
Species or purported species always interest me. I am always a bit surprised when people think they can identify a species just by the leaves. I know, gardeners pay great attention to the leaves. But that is never decisive for ID because the leaves have a general variability. The HostaLibrary has a great deal of info on species. Just go to the homepage of Bob's HL and click on the box that says "Species Update"
Then scroll to the last page that has a boxed link page for species and all the blue ones have been finished. Just go down to H. longissima brevifolia and you'll get enough to last a life time. Then go to H. longissima longifolia and knock yourself out. Just kidding. Actually, the flowers are more important. There is a long leaved H. sieboldii with yellow anthers that looks much like brevifolia, but brevifolia and longifolia have purple anthers (color as it appears before the yellow pollen is released). Anyway, your plant looks much like brevifolia, but it must have the purple anthers. Otherwise it is a long leaved H. sieboldii.