Ophiopogon chingii - NOT! (actually O. umbraticola)

[Afloden]

Mark,

 That is what the Ophiopogon seed is like! We collected about 12 accessions in Vietnam and all but one keys to x intermedia (I doubt it, look at the number of synonyms and the distribution).

 But, I agree that the plant in cultivation as chingii is umbraticola. I keyed these out 1.5 years ago, when I collected and sowed a lot of seed. I have a few plants to show now. Not sure how they got to chingii.

 Aaron

[McDonough]

Mark,

 That is what the Ophiopogon seed is like! We collected about 12 accessions in Vietnam and all but one keys to x intermedia (I doubt it, look at the number of synonyms and the distribution).

 But, I agree that the plant in cultivation as chingii is umbraticola. I keyed these out 1.5 years ago, when I collected and sowed a lot of seed. I have a few plants to show now. Not sure how they got to chingii.

 Aaron

Glad to gain your concensus on the ID.  I had contacted Plant Delights Nursery with my belief that O. "chingii" of Hort was actually O. umbraticola, it was a fascinating process working with them; their vetting process is painstakingly thorough, I wish more nurseries were so interested and diligent in their plant identifications as PDN is. As their plants had finished flowering during our multi-week review process, I took flowering stems, tapped them to paper with a 1 mm grid that I drew up, and scanned the floral details into high-resolution images for close-hand examination. They use a detailed spreadsheet comparing the likely candidates from a field of +60 species of Ophiopogon, with columns for each and every reported plant characteristic, grading the subject plant ID against each. impressive!  Ultimately they agreed it comes closest to O. umbraticola.

Good to know about Ophiopogon seed, I more or less figured it out once I peeled the skin off

[McDonough]

Following up on my seed experiment, sowing seed of O. umbraticola, about 30 seeds sown as whole "berries" and an equal quantity soaked and the skin removed before sowing, the first seedlings just appeared (this is most definitely a summer germinator); so far 3 seedlings from the skin-removed side, 6 seedlings on the whole-berry side.  But, it is probably a bit early for a count, I will report back as potentially more germination occurs.       

[McDonough]

The jury is in, regarding my little experiment, it definitely seems better to sow whole berries of O. umbraticola (possibly true for other Ophiopogon species as well) rather than soaking and de-skinning them.  I don't think I'll see much more germination, only 3 seedlings on the cleaned seed side, and 8 seedlings on the"whole berry" side.  I'm happy to have 11 more young plants of this ultra-slow-growing Ophiopogon that doesn't increase vegetatively.

[RickR]

It seems the whole berry seedlings are a bit more vigorous, or emerged earlier, too?

Perhaps this first generation might grow a little faster.  We can only hope...

[McDonough]

It seems the whole berry seedlings are a bit more vigorous, or emerged earlier, too?

Both types (cleaned seed vs. whole berry) emerged the same day, then a few more of the whole berry seed germinated.  Last year's seedlings are growing well enough, in spite of our hot and very dry summer so far.