Some collectors may still be grumbling or grieving over the loss of the familiar name of Scilla violacea for that popular spotted-leaved bulb. This is true even though the change to Ledebouria socialis was found to be taxonomically necessary by Jessop when he revised the genus Scilla 40 years ago. Most of us have come to terms with that, if not all of the flood of taxonomic innovations this generation has witnessed. Among the changes by Jessop was the lumping of a diversity of plants under the name Ledebouria cooperi. Among those was the plant offered here which was elevated to specific status by Venter and Edwards in their 2003 revision (Bothalia 33: 49-51). L. galpinii is a narrow endemic with subterranean bulbs and is distinguished by its unspotted but corrugated leaf surface and its compact, miniature heads of pink flowers. HBG 93169, plants propagated in our tissue-culture lab from a single clone from controlled pollination of material collected by C. Craib at Kaapsehoop Mtn., NW of Barberton. The species is restricted to the Black Reef Quartzites of the Wolkberg Group of Mpumalanga, in eastern, monsoonal South Africa and is thus a summer grower. $6.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 82 (2), March - April, 2010