Trip to S Turkey (E of Antalya)

[Janis Ruksans]

Further we turned back to coast searching for Kaan gec. We drove by new road three times there and back searching for village on map and road to desired place. Our navigator thought that we are airplane and recommended turn on rocky field. Finally we took single asphalted road in our direction and only on Kaan gec understood that village name is changed and now are different from that on map, due new road - road signs still not placed. But finally we were on desired place. Just on gec was only Cochicum crocifolium and the same Crocus biflorus as near Goksum. Further down after gec started yaila. This flat huge meadow was covered with yellow dots - millions and millions of Crocus chrysanthus, very uniform, pure golden yellow without any stripes on flower segments backs. After long search we found very few with creamy yellow flowers. Again on very wet spots was Colchicum szowitsii.
When road approximated end of yaila, where again road slightly went up, on roadside appeared the same Crocus biflorus subsp. and C. danfordiae. It was very interesting that I didn’t find spots where biflorus will be mixed with chrysanthus, but both where presented and both were growing together with danfordiae. No hybrids between biflorus and chrysanthus were observed there.
Further we followed quite difficult road by very deep gorges, serpentines of road with beautiful waterfalls on sides and lower by road building of new power-station. It turned quite dark, but we maid short rest-stop on quite open slope of pine wood. There were some crocuses out of flowers as altitude was only 860 m. By corm tunic it could be C. cancellatus or reticulatus (I hope that last), and we saw single plant with flowers - Cyclamen persicum. It was a little dark for picturing, but some impression you can receive from attached picture. Further we run down to coast and late evening we were back at our hotel in Erdemli with restaurant on opposite side of road.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Last pictures for that day
Janis

Crocus chrysanthus JJVV-022 -05
Crocus chrysanthus JJVV-022 -08
Crocus chrysanthus JJVV-022 -09 + Colchicum szowitsii
Crocus chrysanthus JJVV-023 -06
Cyclamen persicum JJVV-027 -02

[Armin]

Janis,
thank you for the marvelous pictures.
My favourite 04_Crocus_biflorus_JJVV-015_-07. Blue and white pedals with a blue stem - simply beautiful.
Is the inner flower completely white?

[Oron Peri]

Janis
Wonderful photos,
Amazing to see the colchicum growing in the water.
thank you.

I think the Cyclamen is C. pseudoibericum and not C. persicum.

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis
Wonderful photos,
Amazing to see the colchicum growing in the water.
thank you.

I think the Cyclamen is C. pseudoibericum and not C. persicum.

May be, I'm not specialist in Cyclamens, although it was pictured something out of C. pseudibericum area. One of our team specially searched for pseudibericum but we didn't find. He named this plant as persicum.
Janis

[Maggi Young]

Unusual to see Cyclamen persicum with such short flowers, Janis,  I think that C.  pseudibericum must have a wider range than was thought!

[Janis Ruksans]

Early morning we went to Silifke  and after that by long way via Tashkent in Turkey (not Uzbekistan) to Beishekir with several stops on our not easy road. Some parts of road were not very comfortable with long distances without spots for exchange with front coming car.
At first stop (altitude only 730 m) all crocuses finished blooming but there still flowered Corydalis tauricola. Fritillaria elwesii only showed flower buds. There were two crocus species – I think that one was crocus vitellinus, another C. cancellatus, but I judged only by corm tunics.
On next stop at 1000 m altitude we met a marvelous landscape. There were plenty of different bulbs in full bloom. Crocus vitellinus was at end of blooming. Some flowers only in more shaded spots, protected from sun. But I never before saw in such abundance Hyacinthus orientalis in full bloom. There were nice groups of Hyacinthella heldreichii but for me most pleasant discovery was large clump of Anemone blanda with soft pink flowers, something resembling well known cv. ‘Charmer’ but in more soft shade, not easy to reproduce on photo.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Other pictures
Janis

03 Crocus vitellinus JJVV-034 -05
04 Hyacinthus orientalis JJVV loc. 13 -07
05 Hyacinthus orientalis JJVV loc. 13 -10
07 Hyacinthella heldreichii JJVV-033 -02
08 Anemone blanda light pink JJVV-032 -02

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis,
thank you for the marvelous pictures.
My favourite 04_Crocus_biflorus_JJVV-015_-07. Blue and white pedals with a blue stem - simply beautiful.
Is the inner flower completely white?

I don't know, weather was rainy and flowers didn't opened. I not forced them. JJVV-015 -07 really is very impressive.
Janis

[art600]

Janis

Thanks for the marvellous Crocus.  I hope to post many from my upcoming trip to Iran, but understand that it is already 29C in Teheran and we do not go until April 3rd.  Hope we do not experience the rain you had, but also not to experience the drought we had in 2008.

[Afloden]

Ibrahim,

 The new subspecies was just published in The Nordic Journal of Botany -  Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. (Iridaceae) from southwest Anatolia.

 Janis, the Crocus in the wild are superb and the Colchicum szovitsii is great to see in its natural setting. I just now have a pot of seed germinating heavily -- something that has never happened with me when sowing Colchicum.

 Aaron Floden

[Maggi Young]

Ibrahim,

 The new subspecies was just published in The Nordic Journal of Botany -  Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. (Iridaceae) from southwest Anatolia.
 Aaron Floden

From: .interscience.wiley.com Abstract:

 Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. (Iridaceae) from southwest Anatolia
Osman Erol, Mine Kocyigit, Levent Şik, Neriman Özhatay and Orhan Kucuker,
Correspondence to  O. Erol (erol@istanbul.edu.tr) and O. Kucuker, Biology Dept, Botany Section, Science Faculty, Istanbul Univ., TR–34134 Suleymaniye, Istanbul, Turkey. – N. Özhatay, Pharmaceutical Botany Dept, Pharmacy Faculty, Istanbul Univ., BeyazIt, Istanbul, Turkey. – L. Sik, Biology Dept, Botany Section, Science and Art Faculty, Celal Bayar Univ., Manisa, Turkey.
Copyright Journal compilation © 2010 Nordic Journal of Botany
ABSTRACT

A new subspecies Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. from western Turkey is described. It is characterized by rough papery, light brown corm tunics, leaves that exceed the flower at anthesis and are recurved, distinctly striped inner perianth segments and deeply branched pale yellow or white style. The karyotype of the new subspecies is presented.

Manuscript Accepted 3 November 2009

[Lesley Cox]

I'm surprised no-one has fallen over screaming in ecstasy at that form of Iris persica. I'll do it now.

[Maggi Young]

I'm surprised no-one has fallen over screaming in ecstasy at that form of Iris persica. I'll do it now.

Just waiting for someone to come along who truly appreciated it, Lesley!

[Janis Ruksans]

Ibrahim,

 The new subspecies was just published in The Nordic Journal of Botany -  Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. (Iridaceae) from southwest Anatolia.
 Aaron Floden

From: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123319398/abstract

 Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. (Iridaceae) from southwest Anatolia
Osman Erol, Mine Kocyigit, Levent Şik, Neriman Özhatay and Orhan Kucuker,
Correspondence to  O. Erol (erol@istanbul.edu.tr) and O. Kucuker, Biology Dept, Botany Section, Science Faculty, Istanbul Univ., TR–34134 Suleymaniye, Istanbul, Turkey. – N. Özhatay, Pharmaceutical Botany Dept, Pharmacy Faculty, Istanbul Univ., BeyazIt, Istanbul, Turkey. – L. Sik, Biology Dept, Botany Section, Science and Art Faculty, Celal Bayar Univ., Manisa, Turkey.
Copyright Journal compilation © 2010 Nordic Journal of Botany
ABSTRACT

A new subspecies Crocus antalyensis subsp. striatus subsp. nov. from western Turkey is described. It is characterized by rough papery, light brown corm tunics, leaves that exceed the flower at anthesis and are recurved, distinctly striped inner perianth segments and deeply branched pale yellow or white style. The karyotype of the new subspecies is presented.

Manuscript Accepted 3 November 2009

This one Crocus quite well correspond with those two short lines available at present for me, but it was collected at Gundogmus in 2003. It has deeply divided white style, leaves exceeding flower, and inner segments can be (?) reported as striped. But Gundogmus can't be named as SW Antalya. it is in some distance E from Antalya. Unfortunately I didn't succeed to find more material there during this trip as Crocus blooming were over there and sheep eat most of leaves. May be next spring...
Janis