Colchicum cupanii white form or?

[mark smyth]

I though I would put my possible white cupanii in a thread by itself to get some views. As you will see much has changed since I asked how to get more. Quite exciting as there are now 5 noses coming from the one bulb.

Does anyone have contact details for the girl in Gothenberg to see what she thinks?

[Anthony Darby]

It looks nothing like what I've got flowering now (flower colour aside). The leaves on my 'cupanii' are tiny ~1mm wide. The flowers on yours come out of a 'king great tube! It's what I remember seeing growing in olive groves in Zakynthos a few years ago.

[Paul T]

Yours look like what I have as cupanii (at least it was decided it was cupanii not psaridis as I received it).  The leaves and form etc all match mine, except colour of course.  That is a really nice little white Colchicum, whatever it is!!

[Lesley Cox]

Have these been under glass Mark? They look a little drawn and soft which could account for Anthony's smaller leaves. Whatever, it's a stunning little colchicum.

[Kees Jan]

I would say it's definitely cupanii... I don't think there are any other options than cupanii and psaridis, which are easily distinghuished in cultivation by the stoloniferous underground bits of psaridis. I don't know of any other species in the cupanii group that have wide leaves that are so well-developed at flowering time. Identifying Autumn-flowering colchicums that have leaves at flowering time is relatively easy compared to identifying those that develop leaves later in the season, the choice is very limited in the first group.

There is a very good illustration of psaridis, including the underground bits, in the journal of Scottish Rock: Kit Tan & G. Iatrou, The Rock Garden, June 1995, “A new Colchicum from the southern Peloponnese”.

Anthony, the leaf width in cupanii can be quite variable, some forms have much narrower leaves. There should be no more than 2-3 leaves though.

By the way, do you think I could try cupanii outside here in the Netherlands, or is it susceptible to frost?

[mark smyth]

fully hardy so far for me Kees

Anthony all of my cupanii are outside and all extend the the flower 'stem' as they go over

[WimB]

It looks like the species I have as Colchicum triphyllum
but that species flowers in spring!

[Paul T]

Kees,

All the Colchicum I grow are definitely fully hardy to -8'C in black plastic pots, so they'd be hardy to lower than that in the ground.  That gives you an idea of my temps at least.  As yet I haven't met a Colchicum that dies because of frost, or even gets toasted leaves for that matter.

[Kees Jan]

It looks like the species I have as Colchicum triphyllum
but that species flowers in spring!

That makes sense since triphyllum is one of the species in the "cupanii group".