I have recently purchased a flask of the supposedly rare L. crispilabia so have been doing a bit of research on the species and find a bit of confusion. Withner in his Vol II on Laelias is fairly clear in distinguishing crispilabia from caulescens although he does say that Filho considers them congeneric. In his comments on caulescens he (Withner) mentions that he considers this is likely to be the same as mantiqueirae.
No problems so far. Withners descriptions do not make the differences between crispilabia and caulescens clear apart from noting that crispilabia has a long-stalked midlobe. The distinction would seem to be pretty subtle. A little research on the web throws up the confusion. In particular Miranda on his web site states that crispilabia IS caulescens. He doesn't refer to any published material on this but does seem to have done a lot of field work. My question is - is his opinion shared by other authorities or is he mistaken and in fact overlooking the difference cited by Withner? Also on Miranda's site he refers to crispata as being L. flava but neglects to comment on the colour difference (crispata being re-purple and flava yellow) and that I find difficult to accept. Thanks Phil Blenheim NZ (Where the frost is slowly thawing off the lawn)
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