Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Tony Willis on November 10, 2010, 08:48:19 PM
-
I joined my fellow passengers a large number of whom were morbidly obese and most of whom were already dressed for the beach to check in at 4.30 am on a freezing Friday morning in Manchester. I retired to a lounge for breakfast not joining them for early morning beers. I rejoined them for the 7.00 am departure on the four hour flight to Dalaman expecting to sleep most of the way and be prepared to start plant hunting within an hour of landing. This went well apart from a couple of interruptions when Mary (her name was tattooed on her hands) woke me up to so she could buy 1000 cigarettes from the duty free to keep her going for the week and Daniel (his name tattooed on his neck) who was sat behind me kneaded me in the back a few times .
Following the usual safety announcements and a warning about excess drinking on the flight and not abusing the staff we had a really good flight.
Two hours after landing I was on Yumrutepe Gec above Kalkan within sight of the sea looking at
Sternbergia clusiana
Crocus mathewii (my camera or is it me has difficulty coping with the contrast on this crocus)
Biarum pyramid
The first two pictures show the site of the plants. I had found the crocus before but never seen it in flower and the sternbergia was a new find so a great start.
And them continued on to Kas which was in the middle of celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the creation of the Turkish Republic. The first picture of Kas shows the island of Kastellorizo in the background site of Galanthus peshmenii Kastellorizo form .In the evening there were great celebrations and these little girls and boys were in a parade carrying baskets of oranges. Plant wise Kas was disappointing this year and there were just a few plants of
Urginea maritime in flower.
-
Staying at Kas I went out to visit an ancient site at Arykandra and there were few plants to see on the way apart from Cyclamen graecum
But I did see this mantis and the site is large and impressive dating back to the 4th century BC and the Lycian tomb is from a couple of hundred years later.They were also uncovering some mosaics and this was work in progress
-
I then moved on to Goynuk staying in a lovely hotel recommended by Arthur who had stayed a few days later. I walked a long way hoping to see Crocus wattiorum,I had seen this last year but there were none showing .It is a lovely climb and on the way were many fine
Cyclamen graecum and
Cochicum sp.
-
From there I went to see Galanthus peshmenii at Gedelme a well known site.They grow around the base of an enormouse and quite magnificent plane tree. Again they are late and there were only a few hundred out with many hundreds more just pushing through. Those on the large rock lower down the gorge were not even showing and it was totally dry. I am sorry to say there were none with exciting green bits on them!
Growing above them is a very fine specimen of
Smilax aspera
-
Finally I moved to Akyaka not far from Marmaris to travel down the Bozburun peninsula to look for Narcissus serotinus and Biarum marmariense. There were a good number of narcissus in flower and lots of biarum but it was over. What was interesting was finding Cyclamen hederifolium on a shady hillside at the end of the penininsular where the temperature often gets over 45c in summer
On the last morning leaving for the airport I drove through some woods just near my hotel and saw the beekeepers bringing in their hives for winter. This is a big industry in Turkey and in the autumn they gather the hives in from the countryside in there thousands and put them in the woods near the sea for protection. The families live in tents with their hive over the winter. Growing with them the ground was white like snow with the narcissus serotinus.
Followed by an uneventful flight back home to the cold and rain.
-
From there I went to see Galanthus peshmenii at Gedelme a well known site.They grow around the base of an enormouse and quite magnificent plane tree. Again they are late and there were only a few hundred out with many hundreds more just pushing through. Those on the large rock lower down the gorge were not even showing and it was totally dry. I am sorry to say there were noe with exciting gren bits on them!
...but lovely nonetheless, thanks for showing us Tony ;D
-
What wonderful plants and fine pictures Tony, and great to see some of the landscape of this part of Turkey. Thank you.
If your report lacks anything at all it might be a pic or two of those tatoos & breakfast beers ;) ;D
-
Looks a lovely and interesting place. Thanks for sharing.
Angie :)
-
Tony, it seems late autumn is a fine time to find a lot of interesting flowers. Thanks for showing them - especially the white ones (Daffodils of course ;)).
Gerd
-
Crocus mathewii (my camera or is it me has difficulty coping with the contrast on this crocus)
We travelled 300 mile round trip to see Crocus mathewii on Baba Dag, and I was unable to capture one photo of the beautiful Crocus. In fact none of us has a decent photograph.
Thanks for the excellent report - will try to post mine shortly
-
Interesting report Tony, thanks.
-
Thanks!
None with green bits? You need to go to SpecSavers. I can see two green tipped flowers.
I always go on holiday dressed for hot weather
-
Following the usual safety announcements and a warning about excess drinking on the flight and not abusing the staff we had a really good flight.
Tony when I first read this I thought it said we had a really good fight it just seemed to fit in with the crew's request for good behaviour.
Nice pictures and the weather looks a bit better than last year. Keep em coming
-
Great photos, Tony.
Like Mark I see two snowdrops with green outer petals.
-
So did I.... but I've taken medication.... just waiting for it to kick in........
[attach=1]
[attach=2]
-
Wonderful tale of a trip to the sun (and the plants) in our miserable today's weather, Tony !
Thanks a lot for taking us with you and for not showing the pix of your fellow passengers... ;D ;D
-
Thanks!
I always go on holiday dressed for hot weather
Mark what a disappointment,if we are ever at the airport at the same time I will be unable to have coffee and muffins with you in the lounge.
Yes looking through my relatively new SpecSaver glasses I too can see the two flowers with green bits on them,clearly both from the same bulb.My first thought is 'is that it'. I have magnified my other pictures just to see how many more I missed-none, but there appears to be a pure white one(lie) It's not what I go for!
Ian the nearest we came to a fight was at the check in to come home. We had been waiting a few minutes for it to open and when it did much to the dismay of several people they decided to deal with the disabled first.My goodness this created a delay of at least five minutes.
On a lighter note the food was as good as usual enhanced on the first night by one of my meatballs being held together with a large black hair (good for flossing) and the following night a large pink slug crawled out of my salad around the edge of the plate. The owner and I agreed it was a bonus helping of meat.
-
Thank you Tony. I did not realise Mathewii grew elsewhere other than Baba Dag
-
Pat
I got details of the site last year and cannot remember who from. When I visited then the weather was terrible and all the flowers had been destroyed by rain apart from one half dead one from which I was able to confirm it was a true site for Crocus mathewii. I have only looked over a small area at the top of the pass but there were a good number in lovely flower. I have not seen it in flower on Baba Dag but some random seed I collected there some years ago proved to be it.
-
Another wonderfull trip and post.
C. mathewii in the wild is stuning...
Thank's Tony for it and the pictures, as I always love to see plants in nature.
Turkey is THE place where to go for bulbs, and I never been there..
Your post remind me to put it in my plans ;)
-
some more
Crocus mathewii
Galanthus peshmenii
-
and some more :o :o :o
more pictures pleeeeeeease !
-
Thank you for your report Tony, good fun to read and excellent pictures. I think you and I could have a Victor Meldrew competition!
-
Tony your pics are a dream of a white wide world. In my mind I`m there too.
-
Thank you for your report Tony, good fun to read and excellent pictures. I think you and I could have a Victor Meldrew competition!
..... I'd give you both a run for your money!
-
That looks an interesting one front right on P1090974.JPG Tony...or is it the angle?
-
I thought so too Brian until I noticed that it was one flower in front of another...
-
Brian
I think it is the angle. On the enlarged picture there are actually two flowers and I think they appear as one.
As I was trying to post this Melvyn says the same thing.
Last two pictures from there
-
Brian
I think it is the angle. On the enlarged picture there are actually two flowers and I think they appear as one.
As I was trying to post this Melvyn says the same thing.
Yes of course, I have been caught out like that before with photos, you'd think I would have learned by now!
-
We were also in Turkey this autumn at the same time as Tony and visited Baba Dağ on 4th November to search it from bottom to top for Crocuses. Unfortunately someone with a trowel had got there before us. We found our first plants right at the bottom of the mountain, just inside the woodland at 506m and these were like the white Crocus asumaniae we had seen along the Akseki road a week earlier, though slightly less well developed. A little higher up the mountain there were lilac flowered forms too.
Akseki Road Crocus asumaniae: 181, 190
Baba Dag white Crocus asumaniae: 1165, 1171
-
Sorry, can't get the pictures to attach
-
Then we came to our biggest patch of Crocus where there was much evidence of digging. Here we found Crocuses with a wider colour range: white and lilac flowered forms with both pale and dark throats. There were only 2 plants of the colours associated with Crocus matthewii in a group of perhaps 100 Crocus scattered over a wide area. Many more had been dug up and these are most likely to have been this colour form. Both of the ‘Crocus mathewii’ plants had a style which was about 2 cm long - perhaps slightly longer than most photographs of Crocus matthewii in cultivation and Tony’s pictures taken further west. It is good to know this Crocus occurs elsewhere as they are certainly under a lot of pressure on Baba Dağ.
Unlike most visitors to this mountain, who jump off the top attached to a para-glider, we chose to drive back down again at the end of the day!
Baba Dag crocus with dark throats: 1201, 1220
Holes dug with a trowel : 1225
Baba Dag crocus, other colours: 1189, 1195, 1197, 1227, 1230, 1215