Crocus speciosus fever

[Janis Ruksans]

Returning to home I have one week to check my plants, still to plant few and saw some seeds and then to new trip - now to Turkey to check Turkish C. speciosus populations. At first I want to check how widely is growing subspecies ibrahimii, then I need authentic samples of subsp. ilgazensis and xantholaimos for DNA research, just material from wild as many cultivated stocks grown from seeds can be unintentional hybrids with other forms or C. pulchellus.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

I’m landing in Istanbul quite late in afternoon. Fortunately I booked Hotel (Antic Hotel) well ahead for only 50,- Euro per night. It is not expensive for such quality of hotel (very good, with excellent breakfast) in old Istanbul. Hotel sent for me shuttle bus and soon I’m in bed. In night was very heavy rain, strongest wind with endless lightening, but morning is nice and sunny regardless of quite bad weather broadcast for this day. It seems that rain came earlier than supposed.
In morning I met with Ibrahim who brings me to his garden - to show his collection. He arranged for me rented car which waits me at his house. Unfortunately Ibrahim is too busy in his job, so he can’t accompany me in mountains. So I’m going alone but my navigator brings me through jungles of Istanbul without any problems.
Ibrahim show me nice population of C. pulchellus - still inside Istanbul, some corner of untouched nature between developing living blocks. It is the single population of Crocus pulchellus seen by me during this trip.
Unfortunately nights shower damaged almost all crocus flowers in Ibrahim’s garden, most of them lie down flattened to soil and dirty. Only new-comers of this morning blooms nicely and the best is Crocus nerimaniae - completely healthy stock as was grown up from seeds, not from wild bulbs which for more than 90% are virusinfected. Another beauty is C. sativus. Unfortunately night rain maid ground roads unpassable for both - car and pedestrian, so I can only from distance to watch habitat from where comes type specimen of Crocus speciosus ibrahimii. Picture of this specimen you can see AGS Bulletin this summer. Ibrahim makes for me tea and he must go back to his job but I’m going further in direction of Greece border. I want to see how widespread and how variable is subsp. ibrahimii and its habitats in nature.
Janis

[John Aipassa]

Wonderful travel log and pictures Janis.

[Janis Ruksans]

I continue my road to west without Ibrahim. Sorry, I’m not giving localities and villages where I stopped, but everywhere by road I met only C. speciosus ibrahimii and nowhere any C. pulchellus. Both are quite similar and it is not wonder that subsp. ibrahimii earlier was regarded as C. pulchellus. Easiest way how to separate both is branching of the stigma and its position to anthers. Look on previous entry – pulchellus stigma has few branches only and it ends between anthers. C. speciosus ibrahimii stigma is many branched and well overtop anthers. There is some variation, but usually it is caused by some development problems.
I’m stopping between large heather fields with some openings and low shrubs. It looks as crocus place and there really I found my first ibrahimii. Further to West I found it generally in clearings of dwarf oak forests and rarely even under trees. In most cases it grew in quite wet spots and seems that it prefers some sun although not the spell.
I’m around 25 km from Greek border when I reach last locality. It is too dark for searching of crocuses and my schedule don’t allow for me to stay another day for searching of C. speciosus ibrahimii so I’m turning back to some roadside hotel.
Janis

[Maggi Young]

We were all pleased to see your first flower from the Crocus speciosus ibrahimii earlier this year :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9528.msg255822#msg255822

[Janis Ruksans]

On the way through Crocus ibrahimii localities I stopped on place which looked different from Crocus speciosus habitats, but other ways seemed excellent Crocus spot. And I was right – the open clay meadow was full with very variable Crocus pallasii. Another locality with Crocus pallasii I found at very end of my first days marshrout, too.
Janis

[hadacekf]

On the way through Crocus ibrahimii localities I stopped on place which looked different from Crocus speciosus habitats, but other ways seemed excellent Crocus spot. And I was right – the open clay meadow was full with very variable Crocus pallasii. Another locality with Crocus pallasii I found at very end of my first days marshrout, too.
Janis

Wonderful  pictures and Crocus !

[Janis Ruksans]

I’m awakening very early in morning. Last day was very hot and I put my jacket in bag, but at last spot suddenly came very strong and cold wind, but darkness was running and I wanted to make last photo’s of crocuses, so didn’t returned to car for dressing up warmer and as result rhinitis and cough. So I slept quite poorly. But each stick has two ends. Early start allowed for passing Istanbul and bridge to Asiatic Turkey without great problems.
I’m taking quite unusual road alongside Black Sea making some right turns from it where small roads go in - more thinking about landscapes and not so much about crocuses. This was the best solution during my trip giving sensational discovery. I’m more than half-way to Sinop when after several kilometres of driving by not well looked very narrow road through small villages suddenly under high shrubs I spotted on roadside bright lilac spots. I don’t trust to my eyes - Crocus speciosus. I switch off and restart my navigation, because it shows only 60 m altitude. But it again and again shows only 60 m. For Crocus speciosus lowest altitudes are registered 800 m. Single exception is subsp. ibrahimii growing at 100-400 m altitudes, but it makes link between speciosus and pulchellus growing from sea level up to 1800m (by B. Mathew, I found it not lower than 50 m). Approximating plants, I’m surprised by bright yellow throat which forth me to think about xantholaimos, but altitude, distance from xantholaimos localities? Closer look shows several features separating it from xantholaimos and from type subspecies. Different is corm, too. So it is new species or subspecies of speciosus. Now I wait for DNA results.
   Sometimes it is worth to use new, unusual roads. But I lost a lot of time and so now I hurry to reach end point of my trip - Sinop - city from where turns up road to mountains where subsp. xantholaimos are growing. I’m something alarmed - speciosus flowers at so low altitude. It means that at high altitudes crocus blooming could be ended. In autumn flowering starts at mountain tops and then gradually goes to lower located places just opposit to spring schedule. Really the dates of my trip are quite late. It is very late afternoon when I’m reaching Sinop. Fortunately tourist season ended and there are no problems to find hotel.
Janis

[Armin]

Wow! realy nicely coloured speciosus, shining like a nova

[Janis Ruksans]

From Sinop I’m going up in mountains from where on pass in some 60 km distance is locus clasicus for Crocus speciosus xantholaimos. There is new road through mountains by new tunnel, but still old road up to passes is in normal condition for driving and soon I'm on pass. I’m pleasantly surprised seeing it in full flowers, regardless of altitude and late calendar date. Another surprise is that in nature bright yellow throat is not so widely distributed. In some places dominates specimens with lighter yellow throat and only few have really deep yellow throat, but stigma is few-branched and usually don’t overtop anthers. Of course - plants are variable and there are some “outliners” of this rule, but this only confirms how important is to see natural population. Judging by single plant can give you wrong impression about some species.
Really I had subsp. xantholaimos in my collection, but all my stocks originated from commercial growers, so it was impossible to guarantee that there didn’t happen some hybridization with other subspecies. For DNA comparing is requested pure material, so I’m collecting some specimens just for research purposes. Subsp. xantholaimos I found at 1200 - 1300 m altitude on open slopes and yaila meadows. My observations in Crimea, Caucasus showed that type subspecies tends to something protected areas - on sides of yailas, where are groups of trees, sometimes even under trees, where they are at least partly protected from full sun. In similar conditions I found Greek speciosus and subsp. ibrahimii, too. Subsp. xantholaimos grow in full sun.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Sinop is most eastern situated point of my current trip. Of course - Crocus speciosus is growing further to East, too - even up to Iran from where I described subsp. archibaldiorum. Unfortunately my time limit doesn’t allow go further to East. I have few samples from this part of Turkey collected at start of Millennium during our common expeditions with Gothenburg Botanical Garden. Those were collected in summer by dry leaves. So really I have samples from there allowing to judge about variability and changing of species. Of course visit at blooming time gives much wider and better impression about variability, so may be some of further trips will be directed there. But now I’m turning back to Ilgaz-dag from where is described subsp. ilgazensis.
It is just subsp. ilgazensis for which I mostly came to Turkey this autumn. My stocks of ilgazensis all were from commercial growers, most likely at least some were multiplied from seeds and one stock clearly turned hybrid with pulchellus. I separated hybrid plants and as they all were very uniform I gave them cultivar name ‘Fantasy’. They are very nice, but look much more as pulchellus - only striping and form of petals shows presence of speciosus blood in those. Others seem to be true but such specimens are not usable for DNA checking.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Subsp. ilgazensis grow higher in mountains. I found it at 1900m altitude at very end of blooming. So only few pictures I made and most of flowers were not of perfect shape. It is National park so it took quite long time for me for searching of 2-3 specimens for DNA research growing out of National Park borderline, but finally I found small population located on unprotected area. They were with washed down flowers, so attached pictures are made in National park. This saved me from temptation to make crime collecting it in protected area. Really I don’t know what I will be doing if not succeed with finding of this small group. May be researcher could win in my brain?
To illustrate how important is to see as much specimens as possible I’m including two pictures of atypical plant - such was only one, but its stigma is many-branched and overtops anthers - so it more looks as type subspecies. But may be type subspecies reach ilgazensis area?
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

I found all what I needed and so quietly turned back to Istanbul. By road to west I’m checking almost all mountain passes. I still have 2 full days for research and one day for reaching Airport. On my way back almost on every mountain pass on altitudes between 1200 and 1800 m I found Crocus speciosus. Lowest point was at 800 m where on small spot between trees were growing few C. speciosus. There everywhere are growing another quite special but identical on all passes form of Crocus speciosus. Returning in Latvia I made table in which I put all registered features separating those forms - all turned well separable. So at present I suppose that under name of Crocus speciosus are hided 8 or even 9 different crocuses. Five of them are described as subspecies (type subspecies, archibaldiorum, xantholaimos, ilgazensis and ibrahimii), still 3 need further research (Greek populations and two from Turkey) and remain another one from near Antalya in very S of Turkey, which I never saw by myself, but it was discovered by my Swedish friends and at end I’m attaching few pictures of it. May be Dave will name me splitter, but those really are different when we check all plant and compare all features, which in each form are very constant and different from others.
Only one of passes visited by me on road back to Istanbul was too densely covered by forest without any spot looking as “crocus spot”. Road was fantastical, it was just top of “golden autumn” so several landscape pictures are included.
Of course this part again and again confirmed how important is to see the all population. On a pair of passes I found individual specimen jumping “out of borders”. Is it permanent or caused by seasonal conditions at its spot? Don’t know this. Crocuses are very variable. General view of population allows make some judgments. Best foundlings were pure white specimen in last population as well as very nicely dark dotted specimen of incredible beauty. During my trips I found only 2 albinos - one on Crimea (slightly bluish shaded) and now purest white on pass over Bolu.
On following 3 entries you can see Crocus speciosus type found on my road back between Ilgaz-dag and Istanbul.

Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Further pictures
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Last pictures - unusual forms found on road back and very special from very South of Turkey.
Janis