Description
Ignoring for the moment the dubious transfer of Chionodoxa to Scilla, the botanical name Chionodoxa siehei has been merged (by some botanists) with the botanical name forbesii. However this conclusion is unsound. It appears that the research had been based on misidentified plants that were not actually true C. forbesii in the first place. Rather they were “forbesii of horticulture” which means that they were mostly mis-named variants of C. siehei anyway. It is recorded that several entries in the RHS trial of “small blue bulbs” were submitted (incorrectly) as C. forbesii but later identified as C. siehei!
True C. forbesii thus remains a different and separate species! Botanical incompetence and silliness aside, I do hope that I have not lost you.
This new introduction (2019) is a garden-selected clone (propagated from just a single bulb) which bears up to 3 huge flowers per spike. These flowers are considerably bigger than the largest known Chionodoxa flowers which are found in so called C. gigantea, (which is also misidentified in horticulture).
Chionodoxa forbesii Aigeus was originally spotted among many thousands of old-established, self-seeding plants amongst a veritable grove of traditional “C. gigantea”. There is the possibility that the pollen of other stocks has been involved but it is more likely that this single, distinct plant arose as a sport amongst its parents.
Aigeus was a partner of Aethra in Greek myth and the father of Theseus.
Introduced to our lists May 2019.
