DISTRIBUTION SEED - the Scottish Rock Garden Club

The affs and the aff-nots I am told that ‘aff.’ means ‘what you have is not the name given, but is closely
similar’. I will therefore use ‘cf.’ to suggest the possible correct name, but will continue to assume donors will
use ‘aff.’ to suggest a name, unless they make it absolutely clear otherwise.
No inventions please Just leave that to me! I am sent Ranunculus amplexicaulis alba – yes, it should be
albus – but no. Buttercups must be yellow, even from the Pyrenees, but this species happens to be white!
Label packets clearly please Your packets are initially sorted into 180 large pouches, with divisions such
as Arenaria or Arisaema. When the list is finalised, the contents of each pouch are spread out like cards on a
table to be sorted into individual numbered small pouches. Sending more than one packet of a particular taxon
just increases the work load. Huge packets disrupt this giant Kim’s game, so please don’t over-do the packaging.
Recycled coffee filters are awkward, as are floppy plastic packets. Writing on the packets has to be legible even
when viewed upside-down, so light pencil is frustrating, and worse is black pen on plastic packets with dark seeds
visible, but when the label is put inside the plastic package with the seeds it is impossible. Remember to put your
name on the bottom of each packet, but make sure that what catches the eye is the taxon name. So when you pack
next year, remember me, as I spend ages working on the packages so that they can later be sorted easily.
Clean dry packets please Some parcels arrive quite damp, perhaps it is the rain. I try to dry the packets,
but the packers tell me that often some creepy-crawlies emerge from the rotting depths, so I must have missed a
few. Seeds naturally enclosed with bird-food take longer to germinate if not cleaned.
Taxonomy can be taxing When do I undo the work of the lumpers, or do the work they should have done?
This year I received Fritillaria nigra which I have had directed to F. pyrenaica in my data-base. As this came in
a donation with many other frits, and with a separate packet of F. pyrenaica, I deduce that the donor is an expert
and observes a distinction between the plants. As I have since been assured that these two frits are distinct I have
removed my lumping, which probably came about by an arcane Plant Finder entry identifying a nurseryman’s
mistake. I hope that donors spotting a false lumping will notify me accordingly.
Where have all the flower-spots gone? Most of the spots in the list are in Helleborus, especially
H.×hybridus, and on arrival this year there were red spots, brown spots, wine spots, plum spots. The spot colour
distinction would surely not come true from what can only be a limited number of parent plants with the same
characteristics, so they are all listed simply as ‘spotted’ – when will I ever learn?
Family codes which are not the three initial letters
amn Amaranthaceae cva Convalariaceae plm Polemoniaceae
arl Araliaceae elo Elaeocarpaceae plp Polypodiaceae
asl Asteliaceae hdp Hydrophyllaceae stl Stylidiaceae
cpp Capparaceae pop Papaveraceae
cml Commelinaceae pea Papilionaceae
36