Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Oron Peri on April 22, 2013, 03:37:22 PM
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Just turned back from a two weeks trip to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with not less than 1800 photos of mainly bulbous plants.
Time of the year was perfect and many of the Junos, Tulipa and others were in very good conditions.
Weather was also on our side with only a couple of rainy days at high elevation but for the rest sunny and warm.
We have started in Tajikistan around Dushanbe, going down south to the Afghan border to continue north west to Uzbekistan.
Three early flowering Eremurus were in bloom including few rare E. albertii, a medium size, robust species.
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Eremurus lactiflorus is a showy species growing by the thousands in some locations, mainly on rocky slops.
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That must have been an excellent trip, in fact 2 of the best countries to see bulbs and also very rare and unusual bulbs... definitely 2 countries I want to visit for plants one day, as well as Afghanistan and Kazhakstan...but maybe a bit dangerous...!
Pontus
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The first Juno we went to see is Iris bucharica.
It grows in astonishing numbers in the mountains E. of Dushanbe.
Variation in color forms is rare.
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Iris bucharica flowers
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Above the iris in rock crevices growing Onosma irritans, Pseudosedum lievenii and in between two little Gagea; G. gageoides and white Gagea ova.
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At lower elevation we have seen our second Juno; Iris vicaria.
It is growing under trees, on rock shelf's and serpentines usually in small groups.
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Iris rosenbachiana is growing in grassy slops at higher elevations.
It is very variable and difficult to find two similar specimen.
One even inspired by the colors of neighboring Corydalis popovii.
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Few more...
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fabulous plants!
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It is breathtaking to see so many of them in the wild, Oron. They are such a challenge in our damp Scottish climate.
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Oron wonderful photos. thanks for the Eremurus photos as they are dear to my heart and I wish different ones were listed in seed catalogues more often plus that they would grow as readily here as Urginea maritima.
Always so instructive to see plants growing in the wild.
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Incredible variations in that lovely Iris rosenbachiana Oron. What a way to start the day! I hope there are some more pictures to come :)
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Marvelous, Oron,
that Eremurus albertii is a treat!
And the junos!!!
thanks for sharing with us!
cheers
fermi
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I too am fascinated by those Eremurus. We have just had a talk from Peter and Gill Regan in our group, on Kazachstan (a Greentours trip) in which they showed a wealth of plants, including E. cristus (I think?) - glorious orange flowers and short habit; E. fuscus - yellow; E. regelii - brownish; and E. robustus - very familiar and the only species we have ever grown well in the garden. From all the plants they showed though, the bulbs were only the tip of the iceberg - what a wonderful floristic region.
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Thanks all of you,
It is breathtaking to see so many of them in the wild, Oron. They are such a challenge in our damp Scottish climate.
Hi Richard, well if it is of any comfort, we do not manage to grow them as well, just too hot and dry here... ;)
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Next two Junos we have found are I. warelyensis and I. magnifica.
Both share the same habitat, growing not far from each other.
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Iris magnifica
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Phantastic trip Oron. Envy you. I supposed that Eremurus albertii is lost under Vahsh waterpower station, because in my young years it was known only from there. Nice to see it living somewhere else.
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Well done, Oron!!!! excellent trip!! I'm especially surprised Juno rosenbachiana polymorphism!! :o :o
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Thanks Dima and Janis,
In fact we have found E. albertii only in two locations with less then 10 specimen in each one,
maybe in Afghanistan it is more common..?
Last of the Junos is I. tubergeniana.
Usually i do not like yellow flowers [well, accept Sternbergia, Narcissus and Crocus off course ha and Gagea and Ranunculus...]
but i find this species to be the nicest of all as it has a compact habit with this lemony green color.
We have found it growing in this particular habitat; bare slops of reddish soil.
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We were very lucky to find the first flowers of Iris stolonifera that usually bloom only in few weeks time.
I was surprised to see how small flowers are in comparison to those i know from cultivation.
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Some beautiful Anemone species are growing in these two countries.
Here are Anemone bucharica with its two color forms, Anemone tschernajewii and a natural hybrid between the two species.
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Fantastic Iris collection :o
Is it your first visit in these countries?
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Oron,
a real treat to see photos of these junos growing in the wild,
Thanks,
David
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Miriam, yes it is my first visit to these countries.
David, thank you.
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Gymnospermium albertii is quite a variable species,
It appears just days after snow melts mostly with these incredible colors that fade later on.
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We have found four species of Fritillaria:
F. sewrzowii at lower elevation in light forested area,
F. bucharica is very common and widespread,
F. stenanthera, mainly at high elevations in exposed areas.
Fritillaria eduardii is becoming rare due to massive picking of the flowers to sell,
it can be still found in more isolated locations or on cliffs where people can not reach them.
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And near the melting snow some familiar species,
C. alatavicus- blueish
Crocus alatavicus
Colchicum luteum
Colchicum kesselringii - Uzb..
Colchicum luteum & Crocus alatavicus
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and nice forms of Crocus korolkowii
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Fritillaria eduardii is becoming rare due to massive picking of the flowers to sell,
it can be still found in more isolated locations or on cliffs where people can not reach them.
Do they sell F.eduardii as a cut flower or do you mean they dig up the bulbs Oron?
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Brilliant to share in your trip Oron.
I saw an article recently where it was reported that vast numbers of Frit eduardii were picked for 'cut flowers'. Not digging but no flowers = no seeds and colonies die out.
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Flowers are picked as cut flowers and sold by the side of the roads.
At the moment dozen of thousands Tulipa praestans and T. greigii are sold in this way, vendors ask 20 cents of a Dollar for each stem.
Unfortunately we have seen it happen every day!
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Oh dear but I guess they need the money to survive.
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I saw an article recently where it was reported that vast numbers of Frit eduardii were picked for 'cut flowers'. Not digging but no flowers = no seeds and colonies die out.
Thanks for that Tony, what a shame :-\
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Just found this topic.. Another great trip Oron ! Congratulations again for your pictures, nice to see all this plants in the wild, not only irises ;-)
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Just found this topic.. Another great trip Oron ! Congratulations again for your pictures, nice to see all this plants in the wild, not only irises ;-)
:-[ As I do Fred ....breathtaking series ! Such a pleasure to see al those plants in such enviroments ....
Many thanks Oron !
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I'm continuing this thread as i have been asked by a botanical artist to who currently works on the Anemone of Central Asia to organize a field trip to Tajikistan.
The aim was to find as many taxon out of the eight growing in this area.
We based in the capital Dushanbe and from there went for daily trips concentrating mainly on the Hissar Range also known as Hissor or Gissar Range, One of the three hugh ranges situated North of Dushanbe.
I haven't made many photos as i was to busy finding the Anemone.
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Spring is just arriving in the high elevations areas but most are impossible to reach as it is just impossible to climb these step slopes with rivers in between.
In the small valleys near the rivers we have seen some astonishing carpets of flowers, consisting mainly from Corydalis popovii and Fessia puschkinioides in its Blue form.
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Iris vicaria appears by the millions soon after snow melts it is very common through the whole region while Iris rosenbachiana is difficult to see. We found a small population near Anzob River
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Thanks Oron . I've really enjoyed seeing a unique part of the world
Cheers , Steve
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I too so enjoy the opportunity of 'travelling' to these other countries to see their wild flowers and to get a better idea of the requirements of different species. Thanks Oron.
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Thanks Steve and Pat,
Here are two plants i have found only this year;
The Central Asian Adonis turkestanica that seems to appear soon after snow melts and Ranunculus tenuilobus, growing along the Anzob river. The leaves seems like Adonis but flowers and typical roots are of Ranunculus.
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The lovely Anemone bucharica and luckily we have found the three variants of Anemone biflora,
In particularly I'm happy for finding var. eranthioides that grows at high elevation.
A. biflora var. petiolulosa
A. biflora var. gortschakowii which is not common in Tajikistan
A. biflora var. eranthioides, a little jewel growing on step slops under Anzob Pass (3372m)
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The road to Anzob pass
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Two of the early flowering Tulips.
T. hissarica at high elevations and the common T. praestans.
Sjaak de Groot, corrected me, saying that T. hissarica has 4 leaves while T. dasystemon has only two.
Thanks Sjaak
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Another Anemone, A. baissunensis, found in its locus classicus.
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Oron:
Great stuff, what a wonderful part of the world.
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Oron
really lovely to see, thankyou
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Nice to see such good pictures of rarely seen plants !
Thank you Oron