Crocus September 2009

[Janis Ruksans]

Tony, could it be C. nudiflorus? I noticed in your picture it has stoloniferous corm and here in Central Sapin at least C. serotinus salzmannii has different type of corm. Tomorrow I will go to Navarra and maybe I will picture some C. nudiflorus in the wild.

According to Brian Mathew the stoloniferous habit can be rarely seen in Spanish C. serotinus subsp. salzmannii as well. I have such form, too. As my eyes shows (they are not so bright more) tunics looks as in C. serotinus subsp. salzmannii.
Janis

Returning to leaves of serotinus salzmanii - on picture you can see that some are without, some just show tips and only non-flowering plant (bottom left) has well developed leaves. Another picture is of serotinus from Sierra Nevada.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus pallasii from Crimea is quite variable as you can see on pictures. Another is subsp. turcicus from Lebanon.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Still are blooming Crocus speciosus. Very nice form growth near Lakre Abant in Turkey, its flowers are smaller than in common cultivars. ARTABIR is the largest. OXONIAN the darkest easy seperable by purplish flower tube (in Artabir - greyish). Nicely blooms C. kotschyanus ALBUS. Surprisingly variable turned some samples of C. suworowianus. This deeply striped flower cames from place where side by side growth pure white (see buds in background).
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Last three pictures for today - Crocus hadriaticus from Mnt. Parnassos in Greece and Crocus niveus W of Monemvasia, Pelopones, Greece and last C. thomasii from Apulia in Italy - earliest of my thomasii.
Janis

[tonyg]

Surprisingly variable turned some samples of C. suworowianus. This deeply striped flower cames from place where side by side growth pure white (see buds in background).
Janis

That is the most beautiful crocus I have seen this autumn.  Hopefully not just the one with stripes in the pot!

[Janis Ruksans]

Surprisingly variable turned some samples of C. suworowianus. This deeply striped flower cames from place where side by side growth pure white (see buds in background).
Janis

That is the most beautiful crocus I have seen this autumn.  Hopefully not just the one with stripes in the pot!

At present only one! Hope others will follow! Collected out of flowers and very small sample at 2000m near Ahmediye gec. Flowering for first time.
Janis

[mark smyth]

I was thinking about the pale speciosus/pulchellus I showed today. I think Boyed showed speciosus last year with white pollen.

Leonid says this about his speciosus 'Lithuanian Lakes'
"Because the flowers have white anthers (the sign of C. pulcellus) it can be a result of free pollination, but in other aspects it is true C. speciosum. So I keep the name."

Here is my speciosus 'Late Love' that doesnt match the photo on his web site. http://www.litbulbgarden.com/ss/123.html
"My new variety of this popular autumn flowering species. Although the flowers have all signs of C.speciosus, the blood of C. pulchellus are seen in general."

[Martin Baxendale]

How about a pic of the inside of your crocus, Mark? It looks like it has a yellow throat, which would also make it pulchellus, and the stigma branches look quite short, again more typical of pulchellus than speciosus, which usually has longer, more finely divided stigma branches. The flower shape also looks more pulchellus than speciosus.

[Armin]

Mark,
your wrong "Late Love" resembles C. pulchellus "Zephyr".

Janis,
thanks for showing us your "treasures". 

Nudiflorus vs. serotinus ssp. salzmanni:
I hope to be able to compare them this year after last years purchase of C.serotinus ssp.salzmanni/clusii turned out to be all C. speciosus  .

[mark smyth]

Armin I forgot about 'Zephyr'. Anthony I'll get a photo the next day it shines

[jnovis]

Many thanks Maggi, I think this should sort the problems out.With the previous discussions about Serotinus salzmannii,can someone confirm this is the same species? It was grown from crocus group seed from 2000.

[Rafa]

Thank you for your explanations about C. serotinus and for this amazing collection of crocus pictures. Today I was in La Leze Cave (Egino, Álava) and I took some pictures of Crocus, I identified as C. nudiflorus, but I am beginning to have some doubts...

[Rafa]

Also I saw Merendera montana and Iris graminea, but without capsules...

[dominique]

What a nice nature, Rafa, Spain ! Thank you

[Thomas Huber]

Wow, so many new posts in just one day since my last visit 

Janis, what a great series of photos. You really have a wonderful collection of crocus.
I hope I will be able to visit you one day when the crocus are in full flower!!

Rafa, great to see this Crocus in the wild. It looks like nudiflorus from the flower but seeing no stolon shots makes me also doubt 
Any leaves visible?


And last a big welcome for you, Jim. Your crocus resembles salzmannii in form and colour of the style and anthers,
but I've never seen a bicoloured form with such wonderful rounded petals. A look at the corm tunic will be
very helpful - my guess is, that it's probably C. niveus.