Every once in a while something comes along that doesn’t seem to fit well into a particular category. We decided to put such items together under a “trivia” headline. If you run into something unusual in your travels through the world of martagons, send it to us so we can place it here.

The following topics are included:

Does “martagon” mean anything?

Lilium tsingtauense, Lilium distichum, or both?

Variegated leaves

Digging martagon bulbs

Does “martagon” mean anything?

There are a number of explanations floating around. One of those is that the term is a derivative of “Mars”, the god of war.

We believe, however, that the term comes from an old Otto-man Turkish word “martagan”, meaning a kind of turban. The fact that this lily has been called “Turk’s Cap Lily” for a very long time only strengthens our belief.

Lilium tsingtauense, Lilium distichum, or both?

Some of this CD’s L. tsingtauense photos show a very irregular placement of its petals. This feature is more representative of L. distichum than L. tsingtauense. The plants were purchased as L. tsingtauense from two different sources, one of which was the Species Lily Preservation Group. So what gives? Was there just a mix-up whereby we received a “wrong” bulb? Or is there more to it? We did a little digging and here’s what we found.

From Korea, this plant with the irregular petal distribution has been widely accepted as
Lilium tsingtauense. But martagon expert Gene Fox disagrees. He believes this plant is Lilium miquelianum, not regarded as a pure martagon species, but a complex naturally occurring cross involving L. tsingtauense, L. distichum and perhaps more. The near outfacing aspect and the lack of horizontal geometry makes it something other than Lilium tsingtauense. “The gap at the bottom gives it away”, he says. “That’s a feature from Lilium distichum. True Lilium tsingtauense is symmetrical vertically and horizontally and is up-facing exclusively.” (This topic is also addressed in Gene’s new book, “Martagon Lilies”, due out in July, 2006).

Mark Wood has quite a bit of information on his incredibly detailed Lily Species disk. Under L. tsingtauense we find the following comment regarding identification:

“It is most likely to be confused with L. distichum. It differs most visibly by its more upright flowers, particularly the lower flowers which in L. distichum may face slightly
down. Also its bulbs are entire and not jointed. Intermediates from mainland Korea
with the flowers of L. distichum and the bulbs of L. tsingtauense may be hybrids of the two.”
Mr. Wood adds considerably more on the subject in the L. distichum section of his CD. Some excerpts:

“Lilium distichum is distributed from the Diamond Mountains area of South Korea, near the border with North Korea, in Primorie and north eastern China. Further South in South Korea it seems to give way to a mixture of various intermediates between itself and Lilium tsingtauense.”

“Under L. tsingtauense Wilson included plants which were 'not uncommon' in the south and east-central parts of Korea and he also refers to bi-lateral flowers on plants with few flowers…….., this suggests that Wilson was including the intermediates known as "L. miquelianum" but which, by his description, are more like L. distichum.”

“According to Lighty (1967), the Korean Floras also include the intermediates known as "L. miquelianum" under L. tsingtauense. Lighty (1967) discussed the question of this species in Korea in great detail in the RHS LYB of 1968 following his visit of 1966. He recognised L. tsingtauense as limited to Cheju Do island off the south coast and only recognised true L. distichum from near the North Korean border and further north. He was told that in Korean Floras the Cheju Do plants were considered to be 'L. miquelianum' as were the 'quite distinct' intermediate plants seen later on the mainland. He reserved judgement on these intermediates, referring to them as 'L. miquelianum'. These he described as a heteromorphic grouping which might consist of two species. All appear similar in flower, but differ below ground.”

“As in L. distichum, Lighty noted that 'L. miquelianum' :"has dull orange flowers which face outward and are strongly bi-laterally symmetrical." In the 'miquelianum' populations he found
1. Plants without stem roots, but with narrow, jointed scales,
2. Plants with stem roots with narrow, jointed scales (as in L. distichum) and
3. Plants with stem roots but with broad yellow scales with membranous margins (as in L. tsingtauense).

Similar results were seen in Professor Lee's Herbarium at Seoul National University.”
“Lighty's collections of plants from the 'miquelianum' populations grew in light shade among shrubs or in dense tufts of coarse grass and weeds. From his descriptions it appears some of these mainland plants known as 'L. miquelianum' are almost indistinguishable from L. distichum while others may be hybrids with L. tsingtauense, whose origin is only apparent below ground.”

So what’s the bottom-line? Well, it appears that the “true” Lilium tsingtauense has up-facing flowers that have evenly distributed petals. Some of the photos on this CD may be of plants that are accepted as Lilium tsingtauense in the trade, but are in fact naturally occurring hybrids of Lilium tsingtauense and Lilium distichum. Or perhaps it may even be Lilium distichum itself, masquerading as L. tsingtauense. To assist in identification, we’ll attempt to collect some good photos on this subject for the next edition of this CD

Variegated leaves

Hans Hansen makes his living hybridizing Hosta in Waseca, Minnesota. He’s also grown many martagons and some of his unregistered seedlings grace many local gardens here. But a few years back he spotted some unusual leaf variations. One ‘Claude Shride’ starts each year variegated, but reverts back to “normal” leaves before blooming. A ‘Roja’ clone, however, keeps the variegation all season long. Judging by the photo, we certainly wouldn’t mind having a few in our garden! The Hosta will wait Hans, get hybridizing with this one!