Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Kees Jan on November 16, 2007, 07:25:09 PM
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Can anyone help me with the correct name of this nice cushion plant photographed recently at about 1500 m near Mount Killini, northern Peloponnesos? I don't have a clue, not even of the right family...
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Here are two other plants form the slopes of Mount Killini, northern Peloponnesos.
Could the first one be Drypis spinosa?
Any suggestions for the name of the Clematis?
Does anyone know the name of the Crataegus that grows there? It's a wonderful shrub!
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Can anyone help me with the correct name of this nice cushion plant photographed recently at about 1500 m near Mount Killini, northern Peloponnesos? I don't have a clue, not even of the right family...
Hi Kees Jan,
Just for keeping the discussion running (I hope this is a correct sentence):
What's about a Saponaria species?
Gerd
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An Androsace???
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I don't think the top two are either a Saponaria or an Androsace. No real reason except a gut feeling. They just don't look "right."
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My initial reaction (quite knee-jerk) was Anchusa caespitosa....but mine is very different.
It really looks for all the world like a Delosperma (of all things...)
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It does, doesn't it. Or juicy at least if not actually succulent. I keep thinking of our native Abrotonella, but how stupid is that?
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Hi Kees Jan
I'm afraid I can't help with the unknown cushion, but the 'Drypis' looks more like an Acantholimon to me. The common one in the area is A androsaceum.
Dave
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I don't think Acantholimon either. The leaves are the spikes in that genus, while these look to have relatively painless leaves but savage spines.
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Many thanks to everyone for the suggestions :), but to be honest, I don't think we've made much progress in identifying them. Identifying Greek alpines without flowers just isn't easy, is it. ;)
The spiny plant is not an Acantholimon, and the other cushion plant is not Anchusa caespitosa since that is restricted to crete, and has much larger leaves. It does look a bit like an Androsace (a small carnea for instance), but I don't think there are any alpine Androsace in the Peloponnese either.
Here are two other fantastic cushion plants photographed on Mt. Killini. One of them is in the Caryophyllaceae family and makes cushions that can be more than 1 meter in diameter, the other one is a small alpine Astragalus. Can anyone please help me with correct names. The Caryophyllaceae pics have Arenaria cretica in their file name but that's just a wild guess. It is also very common in the alpine zone of Mt. Helmos and has a fantastic brown (late summer?) autumn/ winter colour, but I think it's green during its growing season.
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It really looks for all the world like a Delosperma (of all things...)
I also think it is a Delosperma. Why did you exclude that solution Jan?
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Excuse me -but the home of Delosperma is Southern Africa ::)
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:-[
Thank you for the information, Hans! :)
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...and yet I grow Delosperma HERE....
You really didn't give too much information in the beginning. Photographed without flowers at 1500m near a mountain. In a garden? In the wild? In a spot where it's unlikely that a garden was ever present?
We're playing a guessing game and everything should be fair game...
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Kathrin,
I excluded Delosperma because this genus doesn't grow wild in Europe. I can see why some people think this plant looks a bit succulent, but having seen it in the wild I don't think it's a succulent plant, to me it looked a bit like a very small Armeria juniperifolia, but that is not native in Greece either. The leaves are much smaller than the leaves in any Delosperma that I know, but one of the pics is a close-up so that might give the wrong impression.
Carlo,
As stated in my initial message Mount Killini is a mountain in the Northern Peloponnesos (Peloponnesos is in southern Greece). The plants are all photographed in the wild on Mount Killini, there is certainly no chance that they excaped from a garden, this is a rather wild and isolated mountain.
Gerd,
I don't think it's Saponaria. The leaves are certainly much smaller than Saponaria pumilio for instance. A flower or fruit in any of these plants would make it easier, wouldn't it. Perhaps I should go back in summer :) ;)?
On mystery seems to be solved since the wonderful Crataegus seems to be Crataegus pycnoloba, which only grows wild on Killini and a few other mountains in the Peloponnesos :) :) :). See http://www.botanic-garden.ku.dk/kic/Christensen-filer/Page899.htm
Anyway, I finally managed to find a picture of a flowering mystery plant, also photographed on Mount Killini, possibly Viola chelmaea??
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Anyway, I finally managed to find a picture of a flowering mystery plant, also photographed on Mount Killini, possibly Viola chelmaea??
Kees Jan,
Definitely not Viola chelmea - which is related to V. alba or odorata. This is a pansy-type of violet (Section Melanium). In Strid's Mountain Flower of Greece Viola graeca is noted for Mt. Killini and according the description there this could be your plant (corolla violet, yellow or particoloured).
Gerd
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Thanks Gerd!
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As I recall from my one relatively brief trip to Greece, the Arenaria-like plants were identified by our tour leader (John Richards, former Pres. AGS) as Minutaria species. They're very close after all and I suspect in some cases could be synonymous. We were in the general areas of Mt Parnassus, Mavrolithari and Karpenessi.
If you were in NZ I'd say for sure, that the Arenaria plant was Scleranthus uniflorus ;D
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Thanks Lesley.
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Moving east to SW Turkey, here are two unidentified shrubs. Any suggestions would be most welcome
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Hi Kees ,
I believe the shrubs are Styrax ( maybe officinalis ) -I have seen this plants also in Greece and Turkey .
By one of my trips in western Crete I saw exactly the same fruits .
I hope this helps
Hans