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 to have 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 misnamed 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.
Chionodoxa forbesii Medea is a garden selected clone making an abundance of pure white, medium-small flowers. It was selected from another old self-seeding grove where both blue and white colour forms of “C. gigantea” (of horticulture) a had been planted and dominated, along with far fewer of a different species from hoprticulture which was pretending to be named C. luciliae.
Medea was the partner of King Aigeus and mother of Medos.
Introduced to our lists May 2019.
