Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Ray on March 28, 2009, 10:08:56 AM

Title: Colchicum ID
Post by: Ray on March 28, 2009, 10:08:56 AM
Could someone ID these Colchicum's for me thanks Ray
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Paul T on March 28, 2009, 10:53:32 AM
Ray,

First one is almost certainly 'The Giant', which is sold here in Aus as Colchicum byzantinum but is a much larger variant.  Multiplies very well, flowers prolifically etc.  The second one I will have to go through my pics to try to identify.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Ray on March 28, 2009, 11:14:44 AM
Hi Paul,The giant rings a bell,but i also have byzantinium,is flowering size the only difference.bye Ray
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Paul T on March 28, 2009, 11:20:48 AM
Ray,

Size and a bit of difference to the shape.  Unforunately most of what is sold as byzantinum in Aus is 'The Giant'.  The species itself if much more goblet shaped and far more elegant than TG, although I have rarely actually seen the true byzantinum in person and have never flowered it myself.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Lesley Cox on March 31, 2009, 12:49:53 AM
Look in Colchicums 2009 (I think). Maggi says the one whose ID I wanted is byzantinum.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Otto Fauser on March 31, 2009, 02:10:35 PM
Paul , as far as I know :C. 'The Giant' has always been sold here as such, it is the largest flowered Colch. I know , and clumps up fast . C .byzantinum is a smaller flower with narrower segments ,I can send you a bulb of the rarer byzantinum album , if you are interested , also a handful of Scilla bithynica.

   Ray  , your smaller Colch. looks like corsicum , it selfsows abundantly in my garden,
          Otto.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Ray on April 03, 2009, 08:47:36 AM
Hi Otto,Colchicum corsicum self seeds,I wish. thanks for the ID bye Ray
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Paul T on April 03, 2009, 10:56:43 PM
Otto,

Every Colchicum byzantinum that I have ever brought commercially has been 'The Giant', but never named as such.  I had grown it for years before I ever found out it was not the actual species it was labelled as, but rather a "giant" cultivar.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: arillady on April 04, 2009, 11:21:29 AM
Just the right subject heading I needed!
This is an old colchicum I have grown for years. Always wondered what it is.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: arillady on April 04, 2009, 11:24:37 AM
By the way the bees were bedding down for the night. They must do the pollinating like native bees in the oncocyclus habitat in Israel do too. Find a bed for the night where they get the morning sun early - the early bee gets the pollen ??? :-\
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Paul T on April 04, 2009, 11:41:47 AM
So they actually sleep in the flower, Pat?  Cool!! 8)  The white stripe in the centre reminds me of Colchicum atropurpureum, but I think it looks like the flowers are a bit larger than that species?
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: arillady on April 05, 2009, 06:52:34 AM
I know the native bees visit a few onco flowers in their habitat before they find the one that they want to sleep in -there was a good paper written on it that appeared in an ASI Yearbook a couple of years back. Not sure if the bees in the colchicums were staying the night but they seemed to be settled and when poked were not interested in leaving their beds and the light was disappearing fast that evening so I wouldn't be surprised.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: fermi de Sousa on April 06, 2009, 05:50:18 AM
Otto asked me to post this pic for him to try to get an ID.
It was grown from JJA Seed 2002 as Colchicum troodii (= C. decaisnei) collected Hatay, Turkey.
[attachthumb=1]
But he feels it isn't C. decaisnei and wonders if it might be C. cilicicum becuse of the pale line down the middle of the tepals?
cheers
fermi on behalf of Otto.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Lesley Cox on April 06, 2009, 09:32:45 PM
Just the right subject heading I needed!
This is an old colchicum I have grown for years. Always wondered what it is.

Pat this looks like what I too was wondering about and Maggi says is probably Colchicum byzantinum, an ancient hybrid which has been around for hundreds of years. Mark in Ireland reckoned it could be C. tenorii but I doubt if mine is as it came from the remains of a garden at least 130 years old. Mine is lankier than yours but is in 3/4 shade and pushing though a mat of violets.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Maggi Young on April 06, 2009, 09:40:29 PM
Just the right subject heading I needed!
This is an old colchicum I have grown for years. Always wondered what it is.

Pat this looks like what I too was wondering about and Maggi says is probably Colchicum byzantinum, an ancient hybrid which has been around for hundreds of years. Mark in Ireland reckoned it could be C. tenorii but I doubt if mine is as it came from the remains of a garden at least 130 years old. Mine is lankier than yours but is in 3/4 shade and pushing though a mat of violets.

 They both look a lot like Otto's perhaps C. cilicicum, though, don't they?  :-\
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: arillady on April 06, 2009, 11:57:38 PM
I will have to try for a better close-up to post.
Thanks for the different references to look up.
I have just taken a couple of closer photos to try to show the soft all over stripey effect in the pink.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Otto Fauser on April 07, 2009, 12:23:49 AM
Good Morning Pam ,
 I am almost certain your Colchicum is C.cilicicum 'purpureum' , with it's yellow
anthers and long white styles with a purple tip . It has been grown here in Australia
 for a long time - an excellent garden plant.
      Otto.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: arillady on April 07, 2009, 12:30:19 AM
Yes a delightful good morning to you too Otto - and thanks for the name.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: fermi de Sousa on April 09, 2009, 08:05:46 AM
I suppose I need to re-post my pic of the Colchicum I grew from AGS Seedex 2001 as C. bivonae but which isn't!
[attachthumb=1]

[attachthumb=2]

It's not very tall as can be seen by comparison to the label and seems a nice clear colour. I can remember the foliage but it isn't excessive.
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Oron Peri on April 09, 2009, 06:08:58 PM
Otto asked me to post this pic for him to try to get an ID.
It was grown from JJA Seed 2002 as Colchicum troodii (= C. decaisnei) collected Hatay, Turkey.
But he feels it isn't C. decaisnei and wonders if it might be C. cilicicum becuse of the pale line down the middle of the tepals?
cheers
fermi on behalf of Otto.

Otto
You are right, this has to be C. cilicium, and Pat's is C. cilicium 'Purpureum'.
C. troodii [C. decaisnei] looks different, and even easier to distinguish when in leaves, 3 leaves almost connected at the base 'standing' on a leg. both species bloom at the same time.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: arillady on April 10, 2009, 12:41:41 AM
Thanks Oron for the approval of Otto's id for my old garden clone.
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Otto Fauser on April 10, 2009, 08:52:11 AM
Thank you Oron , for putting the final stamp on the identity of my C. cilicicum .
 At the moment I also have decaisnei in flower , it looks like your photo , I grew it from seed :Colchicum sp. -collected Nur Dag , Turkey .
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Ray on April 24, 2009, 09:33:25 AM
Another Colchicum that i need an ID for thanks bye Ray
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Ray on April 29, 2009, 12:43:50 PM
Another Colchicum ID required thanks bye Ray
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Paul T on May 01, 2009, 02:21:10 AM
Ray,

I'd be thinking that your last one is cilicicum, similar to Pat's at the start of this topic?
Title: Re: Colchicum ID
Post by: Ray on May 02, 2009, 12:04:33 PM
Hi Paul,thanks for the ID.bye Ray
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