Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Kees Jan on July 14, 2012, 07:25:36 PM

Title: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 14, 2012, 07:25:36 PM
During a recent trip to the Balkan I photographed some plants that I was not able to identify. Here are the first three...

The first is a Lonicera of some sort, photographed in the Rhodope Mountains, southern Bulgaria.
The second one? No idea..., this plant was about a metre tall and found at low altitude in the southern Rhodope, west of Smoljan (in the meantime identified as Amorpha fruticosa, an introduced species)
The 3rd and 4th are pics from the same plant, it is something in Asteraceae, also in southern Rhodope at rather low altitude, about 20cm tall
The 5th is something I don't recognize at all, photographed at low altitude in central Macedonia
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: John85 on July 15, 2012, 09:25:48 AM
Second plant looks like amorpha
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Maggi Young on July 15, 2012, 09:35:08 AM
Second plant looks like amorpha
That seems right, John.

No idea what the lonicera is, but it is very nice.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 15, 2012, 11:44:14 AM
Thanks for putting me on the right track since I had no idea. It seems to be the 'desert false indigo, or indigo bush' (Amorpha fruticosa), a North American plant that has been introduced into Europe...
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kovacs Pal on July 15, 2012, 03:52:52 PM
I think the 3. and 4. is an Achillea ageratifolia.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Maggi Young on July 15, 2012, 04:07:26 PM
Kees Jan, Ian suggests Lonicera nigra for number one
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 15, 2012, 07:20:00 PM
Thanks!
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Afloden on July 16, 2012, 11:00:27 PM
Yes, on the Amorpha.

 That might be the Lonicera, but maybe L. tatarica as well. The two seem awfully close.

 
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Maggi Young on July 17, 2012, 11:42:08 AM

 That might be the Lonicera, but maybe L. tatarica as well. The two seem awfully close.

 
The leaves on nigra are more elongated, while those on tatarica  are more 'rounded' , isn't that one distinction? I can't see the foliage very clearly on the pic, but you may be right ( again!) Aaron   8) :)
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Afloden on July 17, 2012, 11:46:34 AM
I think there are some pedicel length differences as well, but we would have to see it in mature fruit too. They elongate in nigra and hang below the branches when mature and are large and dark blue/black. Tatarica are on short erect pedicels and red. There are flowering time differences as well. If these were taken during the summer nigra may be the better choice.

Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: dscherberich on July 17, 2012, 08:48:25 PM
I think this is rather Lonicera tatarica which has a 4 lobed upper lip with the 2 lateral lobes lobed to the very base and spreading. It is especially visible on the flower on the right side. Lonicera nigra has a distinctly bilabiate corolla with the upper lip very shallowly lobed. It gives the flower a very different aspect.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 20, 2012, 08:26:16 PM
Thanks for the Lonicera advice.

Here are a few more challenges. The first two pics are of a Geranium (in flower and leaf) that I was not able to name, photographed in Pelister NP, southern Macedonia
3rd pictures is something in Asteraceae, photographed at about 700m in SC Macedonia
Subsequently a picture of a Senecio on Mount Korab, near the Albanian border
Finally an Iris of some sort, foothills of Mount Korab
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: John85 on July 21, 2012, 09:23:08 AM
The geranium looks like sylvaticum,but it is difficult to be sure from those pictures.G. pratense is very variable.Certainly one of those two.Do you have an other picture?
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 21, 2012, 12:35:49 PM
Here are two more pictures of the Geranium
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 22, 2012, 10:48:57 AM
And a mistery Dianthus..., photographed on limestone in the NW of Macedonia, in the mountains near Tetova.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Maggi Young on July 22, 2012, 10:55:35 AM
The Dianthus looks very pale... is it yellow/creamy? If yellow it must surely be Dianthus knappii
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 22, 2012, 12:14:15 PM
No, it is actually white, but looks strange because it was photographed very late afternoon/ early evening. I know D. knappii from cultivation, but this is something else, no idea what it is though ???.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Oron Peri on July 24, 2012, 06:52:19 AM
Diantus might be D. integer subsp minutiflorus.
Iris is I. x germanica
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Oron Peri on July 24, 2012, 06:46:26 PM

3rd pictures is something in Asteraceae, photographed at about 700m in SC Macedonia
Subsequently a picture of a Senecio on Mount Korab, near the Albanian border
Finally an Iris of some sort, foothills of Mount Korab

 3rd = Acillea ageratifolia
last = Sideritis montana
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Maggi Young on July 24, 2012, 07:11:13 PM
Bringing K-J's photos to this page  to see them again in the light of Oron's ID....


1) Achillea ageratifolia

2) Sideritis montana
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on July 25, 2012, 07:23:42 PM
THANKS!  :)
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on September 02, 2012, 09:50:22 AM
I photographed this Antirrhinum in the Rila Mts, Bulgaria. Any idea which species this could be? ???
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Roma on September 02, 2012, 10:53:24 AM
Could it be Linaria dalmatica?  I remember many years ago growing this or something very similar at the Cruickshank Garden from seeds brought back by a friend from the former Yugoslavia.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Kees Jan on September 02, 2012, 11:30:49 AM
Could be. Some pictures of L. dalmatica on the internet are very similar. I remember the flowers being very large, which made me think it was an Antirrhinum rather than Linaria.
Title: Re: Mystery plants from Bulgaria and Macedonia
Post by: Maggi Young on September 02, 2012, 02:24:30 PM
Lovely large flowers, but those spurs and the foliage suggest the Linaria, I think.
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