Colchicums late Autumn / early Winter 2006

[Kees Jan]

And here is another Colchicum that needs a name... This was photographed on Mount Ossa, a mountain just south of Mt. Olympus. It is clearly in the group of graecum, confusum, parnassicum and autumnale (style bended near the top, yellow anthers). C. haynaldii is also in this group and its distribution in Greece seems to make it a likely canditate for the Mt. Ossa plants... I find it very difficult to identify these species though, they are so similar and the absence of leaves does not help!
Kees Jan

[mark smyth]

Kees what do you use to know so much about Colchicums?

[Kees Jan]

Hi Mark,

I know a few of the Greek species quite well but I can't say I know much of this complicated genus! Here are some books and papers that are particularly useful:
-Arne Strid & Kit Tan, Mountain Flora of Greece Volume 2, 1991
-Kit Tan & G. Iatrou, Endemic Plants of Greece – The Peloponnese, 2001 (This is a wonderful book!! Very nice illustrations, good descriptions, distribution maps...)
-Kit Tan & G. Iatrou, “A new Colchicum from the southern Peloponnese”, The Rock Garden, June 1995
-Karin Persson, “New and revised species of Colchicum from the Balkan Peninsula”, Plant Systematics and Evolution 217, 1999
-Karin Persson, “Comments on some tessellated Colchicum species in the East Mediterranean area”, Candollea 53, 1988
-Fielding, Turland, Mathew, Flowers of Crete, 2005

There are also brief descriptions in the AGS Encyclopaedia of Alpines and in Autumn Bulbs by Rod Leeds.

I'm always interested in more information since it's quite a challenge to obtain good descriptions etc. of Colchicums.

Kees Jan

[Maggi Young]

Kees Jan, what a useful post... this booklist will help a lot of people. Thank you!

[mark smyth]

I'm going to buy one. What one is your most used?

[Kees Jan]

I would particularly recommend Wild Flowers of Greece: The Peloponnese, although this is limited to species that grow in the Peloponnese and which are not found outside Greece. It's particularly good for Greek autumn bulbs.

As far as colchicums are concerned it has colour drawings of peloponnesiacum, psaridis and pulchellum. Three other species (graecum, sfikasianum and parlatoris) are described, there are distribution maps of all 6 species. (This is only about 20% of Greek Colchicums though. There is just not a single publication I know of that covers much more species in detail, just a rather long list of publications that describe a few... I think there are about 30 species in Greece and another 30 or so in Turkey (and these are mainly species that don't grow in Greece I think). You will be pleased to know that this book also includes nice drawings of Galanthus reginae-olgae ssp. reginae-olgae and ssp. vernalis!

The other book I would recommend is Flowers of Crete, very good for autumn bulbs and very many nice pics! It is however limited to the five species of Colchicum that grow in Crete. Of these five species one (C. cousturieri) might not even be distinct enough from cupanii to be regarded as a proper species.

Volume II of the Mountain Flora of Greece deals with all the Monocots that grow in the Greek Mountains. It has good descriptions and some line drawings, no colour illustrations though and it does not contain the species of the lowlands and fooothills.

I intend to visit Turkey in autumn 2007 to see some more autumn bulbs. Does anyone know of books, publications or checklists that might be useful? Has anyone access to the relevant volume of the Flora of Turkey?

Kees Jan

[mark smyth]

looking today I can confirm my Colchicum sfikasianum is showing tesselation and the hungaricum 'Album' with the pink base isnt trigynum. C. h. 'Velebit Star' is all pink. Maybe Gerben can ask one of his collegues about it.

Because we are about to be hit by two storms in a row I dont see any new photos of these two over the nest few days

[hadacekf]

Kees Jan,
I would recommend Brian Mathew & Turhan Baytop The Bulbous Plants of Turkey. It has good descriptions and 120 coloured photographs.

[Kees Jan]

Thanks Franz!! I hope it's still available.

[mark smyth]

at £75 to £200 it musnt be available. Brian should relaunch his bookshttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Bulbous-Plants-Turkey-Brian-Mathew/dp/0713445173/sr=11-1/qid=1167410400/ref=sr_11_1/203-9567606-0183160

[David Nicholson]

The Bulbous Plants of Turkey: An Illustrated Guide to the Bulbous Petaloid Monocotyledons of Turkey by Brian Mathew and Turham Baytop.

Some current prices:-
from www.BookFinder.com  4 books from different USA based suppliers at prices from £62.82 to £70.19 including shipping costs.
from 1 UK based supplier £93.35 including shipping

from Abe books  1 USA based suppliet  £65.60 plus shipping
                       1 UK based suppier £90 plus £3.35 shipping

There must be a viable market for the original publisher to re-print?

[hadacekf]

I bought the book around  £ 17,50 in the year 1986

[David Nicholson]

I think back to when I was studying Economics, and the effects of the Law of Supply and Demand

[Kees Jan]

Oops... That's a bit expensive for 148 pages published in 1984, perhaps I will wait for a modern version.

By the way, 5 species of Colchicum and Merendera are described and nicely illustrated in Vojtech's brand new book "The Caucasus and its Flowers".

It's interesting that only 1 of these 5 colchicums sl. flowers in autumn while 4 out of 6 Caucasian crocuses flower in autumn... Not a region that is particularly rich in autumn species though. Is eastern Turkey, being situated "near" the Caucasus, also quite poor for autumn bulbs compared with Greece and western Turkey??

Kees Jan

[Maggi Young]

Ah, David, those farway student days, long before families and gardens!