Author |
Message |
David Matzdorf
Site Admin
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:06 pm Posts: 5321 Location: Islington, London UK
|
Furcraea parmentieri
_________________ 51º33'07"N x 0º07'21"W
43m (142 feet) ASL
|
Sat May 16, 2009 12:30 pm |
|
|
Charles Wychgel
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2007 10:09 pm Posts: 757 Location: Algarve/Portugal
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
I'm growing what I thought was Furcrea bedinghausii but just found out they are actually Furcrea roezlii which is very much like the former but has longer leaves(Mary Irish et al.)
Growing it in the worst soil gritty clay with lots of builders rubble, never watered, well maybe occasionally when I was in the mood; one of them has started to flower triggered by the extreme low temps we have had here in the Algarve (-1º in my garden)
As it has only a short trunk when flowering I thought it WAS F.bedinghausii but now after reading Paul's post I am in doubt again.
I did have a F.bedinghausii with a small trunk some years ago but this was growing in much better soil and was regularly watered, it flowered some years ago and made lots of bulbils.
Not much help I am afraid , but imo it is an easy plant and will grow in any soil deep or shallow.
Here is a pic , the one on the right just finished flowering, no signs of bulbils yet
_________________ 37º 04' 16 71" N
8º 50' 13 59" W
|
Sat May 16, 2009 5:09 pm |
|
|
neil armstrong
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 8:03 pm Posts: 232 Location: west cornwall
|
Not fantastic quality as on my mobile phone but this shot taken an hour ago shows some of these plants going for it..
F.parmentieri -they produce both seed pods and bulbils
_________________ Neil
|
Sat May 16, 2009 6:38 pm |
|
|
Paul Spracklin
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:55 pm Posts: 2564 Location: North Thames delta UK
|
David - Furcraea parmentieri. They are drought tolerant but grow spectacularly quickly with lots of water. High altitude plants, these are found in and above the pine forests of central Mexico, not on baking hillsides with yucca and dasylirion.
is the paper published in 2000 by a Mexican botanist revising trunking furcraeas
Charles, according to Garcia-Mendoza in the above paper F. roezelli is a synonym of parmentieri, as is bedinghausii. These produce bulbils AND seed.
Again, according to Senor G-M, F longaeva is actually this beast:
Which makes all the plants I have seen growing in England and the rest Europe labelled longaeva incorrect and causes no end of confusion. This one just produces seed, not bulbils. Allegedly.
Neil - reassuring to see your plants coming through that cold winter so well. How about a furcraea forest on that slope? Wouldn't cost you much - just throw a few thousand bulbils around.
|
Thu May 21, 2009 7:47 am |
|
|
Kev Spence
Site Admin
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:59 pm Posts: 10902 Location: Loughborough, Leics, central UK
|
Its good to see things are greening up a little Neil and they did look like they were up to something in March.
|
Thu May 21, 2009 9:01 pm |
|
|
manuvericel
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:18 pm Posts: 105
|
For some reason (dryness?) this furcraea sometimes takes its time to bloom and grows a great trunk
French rivierra in an abandoned garden. It was so dry in this garden when I get there in 2006 that the Neriums where dying
_________________ France Z8a, 45.47°N
http://gardenbreizh.org/photos/manuveri ... 10815.html
|
Sat May 23, 2009 4:41 pm |
|
|
Marc H
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 7:59 pm Posts: 233 Location: aberthaw
|
In my experience F.longaeva in Britain were in the past mostly derived from the Tresco type. The plant selfs all over the place, particularly on the dry, sunny, but often windy and cool, appletree banks sand dunes. It also grows in moist shade under cypressus macrocarpa. In recent years there has been more variation available. My roezlli seems identical with the longaeva I have from tresco originally. The latter went through -6c this year covered by a thin fleece on a couple of the worst nights. I think they like plenty of rain, and grow very happily in rich moist soil, without needing high summer heat. I wonder if some of the morphological variation going on is related to growing conditions. In Tresco Gargens the plants grow rapidly to about 1.8m diameter with bluish, sliver bloomed quite flaccid foliage, and ascending a stem quite soon. Some plants flower almost stemless, while others can reach 3m or more before doing so. On the other hand, the same sp or cv out in the sand dunes makes a rosette less than a metre across with yellowish, stiffer leaves, the lower trunk often bare. These only ascend to a metre or so before flowering, the inflorescence much smaller and compact.
I once tried to dig up a young selfed plant which was only about 15cms height and spread the leaves thin, yellowed and clearly impoverished. The plant had a stem diameter of about 5cms, but as I scooped away the soft sand I found not a root system but a single vertical taproot. After digging down a metre or so I still had no more than this perfectly straight, unbreakable root which resembled a windsurfer mast hammered into the gound in strength and form. I had to give up and leave the poor thing. From that experience I would say that those plants probably attained quite an age before flowering.
Not very focussed, I know, but hopefully of some inerest.
|
Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:23 pm |
|
|
Ron Whisenhunt
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:57 pm Posts: 288 Location: Spring Valley, CA USA
|
|
Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:51 pm |
|
|
Paul Spracklin
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:55 pm Posts: 2564 Location: North Thames delta UK
|
Hi Ron - I ordered some of those F. longaeva seeds and they have come up with no problem at all. Should make for an interesting plant - a bit of a monster! Here I used a little bottom heat to start but, once they had come up, switched off the heating so they just had ambient greenhouse temperature with a decent day/night swing.
F. parmentieri here also survives (it scraped through my last winter - but isn't flowering...) in a really dry spot on a bank where it is impossible to water it. But plants that get more moisture grow into far better looking specimens, I think. At least in England.
|
Sat Jun 06, 2009 8:13 am |
|
|
Josh76
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:31 am Posts: 316 Location: Brentford, Middx
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
Just resurrecting this old thread David to see how your Furcraea survived on the roof. Did they make it?
|
Wed Jan 01, 2014 1:00 am |
|
|
David Matzdorf
Site Admin
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:06 pm Posts: 5321 Location: Islington, London UK
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
The one on the roof died immediately after the big freeze in December 2010.
The two in pots under a table in the front garden, to keep them dry, waited until Spring 2011 and died then.
_________________ 51º33'07"N x 0º07'21"W
43m (142 feet) ASL
|
Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:19 am |
|
|
Josh76
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:31 am Posts: 316 Location: Brentford, Middx
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
Oh. Only an emoticon can sum that up really:
|
Wed Jan 01, 2014 11:53 am |
|
|
David Matzdorf
Site Admin
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:06 pm Posts: 5321 Location: Islington, London UK
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
They were fine, even as very small plants, during Winter 2009/10, through overnight -5ºCs and with snow falling and then melting all over them.
Four weeks of near-continuous freezing temperatures down to -6ºC were too much for them. I think it was the sustained nature of the cold, rather than the difference in minimum temperatures, that they found lethal.
_________________ 51º33'07"N x 0º07'21"W
43m (142 feet) ASL
|
Wed Jan 01, 2014 12:12 pm |
|
|
Nick Macer
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:42 pm Posts: 1284 Location: Gloucestershire, UK
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
_________________ Purveyor of good things
www.panglobalplants.com
|
Wed Jan 01, 2014 1:23 pm |
|
|
Clive in London
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:46 am Posts: 409 Location: London
|
Re: Furcraea parmentieri
On the other hand I found these things lurking in E London in 2012. I wonder if the Ceonothus gave them some protection - didn't look like the owner/tenant did much gardening recently so I'm guessing they didn't get a fleece. Hackney Rd, near the Sebright tavern turnoff.
Spectacular things!
|
Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:03 pm |
|
|
|