Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: DaveM on April 19, 2015, 06:51:11 PM
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On the last Saturday in March I set out for Izmir on the west coast of Turkey and over the following week journeyed in a general north-east direction, taking in Boz Dag, Ulu Dag and Lake Abant, finally returning to the UK via Istanbul. Reports of well flowered fields of crocus this spring in south-west Turkey gave us hope that we would see plenty of the 7 crocuses (and a lot of other things besides) on our list. Over the next few days I'll post some of the highlights of this region.
I hadn't really expected quite such a green and pleasant land, with trees bursting into leaf at low levels, with early spring flowers but with snow still lying at higher levels. And of course, we also got snowed upon, as I'll recount later. However this part of Turkey has a higher rainfall than much of the rest, with some rain expected even in summer. It is thus a rich agricultural area with abundant orchards in particular. The peaches and cherry trees were just coming into blossom and the roadsides sprinkled with spring flowers.
Escapee peach tree and blossom
Asphodelus aestivus - widespread throughout the Mediterranean
Anemone coronaria red form
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Boz Dag lies just to the south of the town of Sahlili and just a little more than an hour's drive from Izmir airport. The higher slopes still looked barren, as though the snow had not long since melted. Whilst exploring the slopes Chris shouted across to the rest of us that he'd found a Corydalis and suddenly, out of the more distant of the two junipers a wild boar shot out, clattering down the slope at full pelt - must have been all of 100 kg!! Clearly, we'd disturbed his 'siesta' and he got out fast. We'd seen evidence of boar diggings but hadn't expected to see out at quite so close range. Scary moment.
Only a few plants hereabouts, including the Corydalis - C. nariniana
A few Crocus chrysanthus adjacent to the small streams on the hillside
Scilla bifolia emerging through last year's growth.
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On the lower slopes we found the lovely pink member of the Caryophyllaceae, Moenchia mantica. And in a road cutting through slaty rocks were hundreds of loose mats of Aubrieta, probably deltoidea. Though a common plant of our gardens and somewhat frowned upon by some rock gardeners, it was nice to see this in it's natural environment. The degraded rock face was very broken and unstable.
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More Aubrieta deltoidea
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Throughout the week the roadsides were dotted with the ever present mixture of the yellow Cornus mas and the white of Prunus spinosa.
Roadside weeds on our way north towards Bursa included the soft Sideritis lanata and at another roadside cutting through basalt were hundreds of Alyssum peltarioides. The verges hosted the occasional Dracunculus vulgaris too soon to be flowering and also many Muscari neglectum. Interestingly, the size of the various populations varied considerably, some with small flower heads but this one particularly robust.
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We stopped to examine a fine piece of old woodland with mixed chestnut and oak with more Cornus mas. There was an amazing array of lichens in this woodland, just one example. Here was Corydalis wendelboi and the first of our two snowdrops, the very delicate Galanthus gracilis. Just a few were in flower here but we also saw it elsewhere in similar habitat.
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In one area of limestone we saw a very fine pale pink Anemone coronaria.
Here at the edge of the scrubby oak were clumps of Iris attica. We were to see this again two days later in the area around Ulu Dag. The colour of the falls varied significantly though the main colour was the pale lemon yellow. We didn't see any purple flowers.
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Here is the Iris attica from the Ulu Dag area, all on limestone.
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At Bursa the next day, we awoke to cloudy skies and what promised to be a wet day, so any prospect of getting to the crocus on Ulu Dag was out. We did see some Crocus flavus whilst it was trying to snow in one place but they remained resolutely tightly closed. So we had to content ourselves with examining woodland areas at low altitudes on the flanks of Ulu Dag. In small patches of oak woodland we saw the beautiful Primula vulgaris subsp sibthorpii. The woodland was managed and had recently been thinned. Interestingly, all the plants here were young ones - no large clumps.
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Helleborus orientalis is common in woodland in NW Turkey and we saw fine plants at several localities.
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The weather forecast for the next day (Wednesday) promised to be sunny and indeed it was. So we raced to the yayla at the forestry centre and cafe high up on Ulu Dag to find it sunny but very cold. This was more or less at the limit of snow with areas largely free of it. And there were the promised masses of crocus, mostly tightly closed. So we waited, walked a bit, watching the birds, and after a little while it warmed up sufficient for at least some of the crocus to open.
The crocus here were a population of C. chrysanthus and C. biflorus pulchricolor and hybrids between them. A glorious sight. Just some of the variation seen here.
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More hybrids between Crocus chrysanthus and C. biflorus pulchricolor
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Thanks for sharing Dave ! Like to see them growing in the wild !
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You're welcome Kris.
A little below the last are was a more sheltered clearing in the woodland and here also is Crocus chrysanthus, but this time accompanied by Crocus (gargaricus) herbertii. No hybrids. The view shows both species together. the remaining pix are of C herbertii. The stoloniferous character of this species is clear to see.
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Lower down still and on the banks of the road were just a few Crocus flavus open.
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Dave, thank you so much for your interesting report.
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A pleasure Rudi!
We arrived at Lake Abant to the west-south-west of the town of Bolu early Wednesday evening. Approaching the National Park from the west and in fading light we saw the wondrous sight that is the yayla above the Lake. There, the wet meadow was absolutely covered in crocus and colchicum. The light was too poor for photos, but we could hardly wait for the next day. All looked promising when we reached our hotel (pic 1),..... except for the weather forecast which was for snow on the Thursday.
And the forecast proved to be right. Snow fell during the night and continued on and off at Abant during Thursday. So we headed south towards Nallihan and Beypazari. Near the first, at a roadside locality in sticky red clay were growing the dainty bells of Fritillaria fleischeriana.
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At least here there was no snow, but the skies grey and it was bitterly cold.
Towards Beypazari, the landscape became like the 'badlands' with bare multicoloured rock formations and little plant cover in parts. There were common halophytic plants in the area, probably the result of sulphate in the rock. Here adjacent to an important bird sanctuary grows Muscari adilii, a species only recently described, and named after Prof. Dr. Adil Güner. An un-named species of Vinca accompanied the Muscari. The bird sanctuary is a wetland created by the damming of the river and hosts huge numbers of cormorants and a massive heronry. Osprey, marsh harrier and white-tailed eagle were observed.
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Returning north toward Abant we stopped briefly on a low snow-free pass to look at Crocus ancyrensis (pic 1). It was bitterly cold and windy and these remained tightly closed. This crocus was accompanied in places by a few C. abantensis.
Onwards and back into the snow zone where the floor of coniferous woodland is carpeted by Cyclamen coum. This is a really tough little plant which seems to withstand the harshest of conditions. Scattered among the Cyclamen is Corydalis caucasica.
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Beneath the snowline and in deciduous woodland we saw sheets of the primrose, Primula vulgaris, along with Helleborous orientalis and Corydalis caucasica.
Though Abant had been a white-out until the mid-afternoon we counted ourselves lucky that we had seen some decent plants. The night promised to be below freezing but the forecast for the Friday was for a sunny day. Despite this, we were left wondering what chance we had of seeing Crocus abantensis on what was to be our last day of the trip ........
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Dave
a really interesting report.I have been to all those areas many times and it is good to have a reminder of the wonderful plants. I have only visited abant in early may and by that time spring is well advanced and the snow has usually gone leaving the woods and slopes full of flowers.
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Thanks Tony, good to know that you have visited this area. So so different from the Taurus mountains to the south and well worthy of revisiting. A few final posts tomorrow accounting for Friday.......... ;D
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Dave,
it is great to see so many garden cultivars in their natural habit.
I enjoy every image. 8)
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dave,
It is a great joy to follow your footsteps
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Thanks both. Yes, it was great to see plants that many of us grow in our gardens.
Friday dawned sunny with a hard frost. A careful drive around revealed the extent of the snow cover. The meadows just above the lake were well covered and even more just on the north side of the park.
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Though the temperature was rising fast and melting underway (fingers were crossed!!), we decided to explore the roadside below the snow-line towards Bolu. 3-4 km away we found woodland and streamside margins with Petasites hybridus, dainty Dentaria quinquifolia and Galanthus plicatus subsp byzantinus.
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A few of the slopes facing the sun were drier than the meadow bottom and were clear of snow. A wealth of flower power adorned these areas, with Helleborus orientalis just emerged from buds, Scilla bifolia, Cyclamen coum and yet another yellow crocus, this time the gorgeous Crocus olivieri. There were a few good clumps as well a singles dotted around. Crocus abantensis also grows in small numbers on these slopes. Several of groups of flowers needed a little encouragement from a make-do greenhouse to open properly.
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From the almost total snow-cover when we first arrived at the wet meadow, by about 1pm the snow had largely gone. So we were at last able to see and enjoy the many thousands of Crocus abantensis there - what a sight and lots of excitement!!!!
The crocus had withstood the cover of snow for that day or so, but sadly most of the accompanying Colchicum triphyllum was trashed.
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Hi Dave,
thanks for showing. I have enjoyed your trip very much!
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Just a few closer images of Crocus abantensis to end this tale - which, after all, did end on a high note. On reflection I think we were extraordinarily lucky that we saw just about all we had hoped to see. The long drive to Istanbul didn't seem quite so long after those sights which will be a wonderful memory for many a year. Just a pity that the crocus weren't all fully out........
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Very nice. What altitude is this?
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Lake Abant is at about 1330m and the meadow just a few tens of metres above at 1380-1400
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Remarkable number of flowers seen, in spite of the snow. Of course the snow makes for very attractive vista shots.
The blue of the Crocus abantensis is so lovely - perhaps it was even more "noticeable" when the flowers were closed?
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Really enjoyed it Dave . Put this area on my bucketlist .........Thanks !