SRGC Guided Tour to Eastern Turkey - May 2012

[Maggi Young]

I think that Ron McBeath used to sell that form of Frit. aurea, too. I have a recollection of Jack Brownless "beating" me to the purchase of a pot at a Stirling show.
Now Norman Stevens gave the Stirling Show lecture one year, but I can't remember if he had plants for sale then and I'm confusing two incidents ...... can't even remember off hand what decade this was.  Will try to track it down!

[Tony Willis]

Dave

I have waited until now to see all the pictures and it has been a fabulous report of a very successful trip.

thanks for showing the pictures it has been tremendous.

[Arda Takan]

Great trip and great photos. I hope I can see these plants with my own eyes one day.

[DaveM]

Thank you all for your comments.

Arda - you really must go and see some of the very lovely flower vistas in your country - truly magical. I do hope you will manage to go one day...... 

Oron has posted some images of a lovely dark form of Onobrychis cornuta from the Israel - Syria border area. http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9179.msg249023#msg249023

This species also occurs in Turkey and for comparison below are some pics of it from the Subatan Mountains, above Kamaliye.


edit by maggi to add link

[Arda Takan]

Actually if trip were cheaper I could attend but it was way too expensive.

[Margaret Thorne]

Could any of these be anything other than Crocus biflorus subsp. tauri?
They were all photographed on 8th May 2012 during the SRGC trip to Turkey at Kop Pass between Bayburt and Erzurum. They seem more variable than ones we saw elsewhere on the trip and one of them is very dark on the tube and base of the flowers which does not fit the description for Crocus biflorus subsp. tauri.
Is it possible that this one could be Crocus aerius or something else?

[Margaret Thorne]

These are the photographs of the crocuses we found further south in Turkey, on Subatan Mountain near Kemaliye and in the Doğanşehir Mountains near Malatya. They meet the descriptions of Crocus biflorus subsp tauri given on the herbarium specimens for which Ibrahim very helpfully provided the link in 2011 (Re: Late crocuses from Turkey, June 27), and in Brian Matthew’s book.
The latter says ‘C. biflorus subsp  tauri, like subsp pulchricolor, also has blue flowers lacking the very conspicuous dark veining which is such a prominent feature of C. aerius…..’.
This seems to point to some of the Kop Pass plants being something other than C. biflorus subsp tauri or has this subspecies subsequently been found to be more variable than originally described?
Unfortunately, I cannot see any basal rings on the bulb tunic, which is even more confusing. Can anyone help, please?

[Janis Ruksans]

These are the photographs of the crocuses we found further south in Turkey, on Subatan Mountain near Kemaliye and in the Doğanşehir Mountains near Malatya.

Crocus yakarianus!

Description is something strange and features used to separate .... so-so. But I collected it, too and at that time nick-named "caelestis aff." although it is growing very far from caelestis localities. I think I wrote about this one on forum. Now it is named by Turkish botanists. In any case it is different from taurii and name regardless of something ...... description, must be accepted.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Could any of these be anything other than Crocus biflorus subsp. tauri?
They were all photographed on 8th May 2012 during the SRGC trip to Turkey at Kop Pass between Bayburt and Erzurum. They seem more variable than ones we saw elsewhere on the trip and one of them is very dark on the tube and base of the flowers which does not fit the description for Crocus biflorus subsp. tauri.
Is it possible that this one could be Crocus aerius or something else?

It is not aerius. I regard it as Crocus taurii. In attachment my pictures from Kop gec. Now "biflorus subsp." are regarded as species! It was confirmed by cytological researches.
Janis

[Margaret Thorne]

Thanks for a really informative reply, Janis. I really appreciate it, as will the rest of the group.

[Margaret Thorne]

Thanks to Maggi for some great posts before the trip, to Dave for such a fabulous photographic diary once we got back (with additions by Claire) and now to Janis for identifying the crocuses: see previous posts from 6th, 8th and 9th  February
 
John Birks very kindly confirmed that the Pedicularis we saw in the Doğanşehir Mountains on 15th May was Pedicularis  cadmea.


(Edit by maggi to show crocus query pix added here rather than in another thread)

[Claire Cockcroft]

Thank you for the identification of Crocus yakarianus.  I took pictures of two crocus growing side by side in the same spot as Margaret took her photos in the Doğanşehir Mountains.  The first definitely resembles C. yakarianus, but the second isn't, is that right?