Crocus Trips October, November - 2013

[Janis Ruksans]

Few hours ago I returned from Crimea where I went to check morphological features of Crimean Crocus speciosus. As you can read in my paper published this summer, researches made by Brighton et Co showed that Crimean plants genetically are very different from type subspecies grown in Georgia. My target was to found features how to separate them morphologically and I suppose that I succeed in this not easy task. So I would like to name Crimean plants as subspecies ponticus (Latin name of Crimea is already used for Crocus tauricus) by old name of Black Sea. Still remain to check another genetically different form growing wild in NE Turkey, but this must wait till next autumn. On attached pictures you can see me and my Ukrainian friend Dima Zubov and Crocus speciosus pictures made on W end of Ai-Petri Yaila.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Here you can see our guide on Ai-Petri - Ilya, great lower of nature, speleologist and forest guard, Those Crocuses are pictured below Tschatir Dag yaila. We were quite late but very luckily as two days before our coming there were heavy snowing and even minus 4 C. On Tschatir dag yaila still were snow, but at our visit midday temperature reached + 25 C and we were in real summer. Autumn was not pleasant in Crimea this year. Since mid September up to last days there were endless rains and very cool. Pictured crocuses are the last ones in season.
Janis

[pehe]

Many nice forms of speciosus!
The dark one (Tschatir-dag2) reminds me of the cultivar Oxonian.

Poul

[Janis Ruksans]

When I visited Crimea for the first time I didn't give great attention to specific features of Crimean speciosus, following traditional view that it is identical with type subspecies from Georgia. After seeing of plants later described by me as subsp. ibrahimii and subsp. sakariensis and finding the specific morphological features of subsp. bolensis, I found article of Brighton et al. It gave me great doubt about former status of Crimean plants just for their genetic features - number and morphology of chromosomes. So I returned to Crimea and with the first plants checked I found the real difference from others and all complex of features well allow to separate it from other subspecies. The main features we can find underground - just on corm tunics. They are papery, thin but contrary to other subspecies subsp. ponticus has very distinct and very wide basal rings. Neck of old tunics generally is absent or rarely very short (up to 2 cm). On Ai-petri between 30 checked plants one had long neck, and on Tschatir Dag where I checked more than 100 specimens, two were with long neck of old tunics, but some such individuals (falling out of general concept) I saw between other subspecies, too.
More interesting is position of stigmatic branches. Generally in subsp. ponticus they well overtop anthers, but there were few groups with stigmatic branches hiden between anthers and one group without stigmas in flowers at all. I collected few plants from each and kept separately for comparing in future under cultivation conditions.
Janis
P.S. Would be pleased to read your opinion!

[Janis Ruksans]

Here picture from group where crocus flowers were without stigmas. Picture too dark, but I havn.t better.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Passing three days in home I again packed my backpack for far road - now to Armenia where our forumist Zhirair promised to show me Armenian populations of Crocus speciosus. To reach Armenia from Latvia isn't easy. There are no direct flies to Erevan and all what I found on internet were expensive, very long and of "unhuman" time schedule - starting at one day I could reach Armenia only next day. Fortunately Vanadzor where lives Zhirair is midway between Tbilisi in Georgia and Erevan, so I selected flight to Tbilisi - much cheeper and more comfortable by schedule with change in Kiev (Ukraine). There are direct flight from Riga to Tbilisi, too, but only 3 times in week and for my very busy schedule and great travel plans this autumn - it was not useful.
Weather before my coming was quite wet and cold. Mountain tips were covered with fresh snow and seeing this from my plane's window I had deep doubts about success of my trip.
In Tbilisi Zhirair waited me with his wife's brother Aren who was our driver during this trip. Border passing was without problems adding only two new stamps in my passport - Georgian and Armenian. Our first target was Crocus speciosus population near Ijevan where we turned up in mountains to old church complex - 4 closely spaced churches - eldest from 7th century AD and youngest from 12th century. Quite soon we spotted first Crocus flower deep in shrubs, but near churches there were thousands of them but only in shrubs and on very side of forest, no one on open field.
On this entry I'm showing few pictures of Armenian mountains maid by road to Ijevan and Ijevan churches. Weather was cloudy, but in short moments sun shined through clouds. Zhirair's charming wife Alla called him and told that in Vanadzor are heavy raining.

[Janis Ruksans]

Now last pictures of Ijevan church complex and few of Crocus speciosus seen there, just near churches. Crocus speciosus there are growing only in shade, under trees and in shrubs. In this aspect they are close to Crimean populations. As in Crimea, on open field they are growing only at very edge of forets and most abbundantly at spots were rubbige is thrown.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Outside of churches (surrounded by fence) was strange large stone construction with water spring in middle. There were left hundreds or even thousands of Crocus speciosus flowers. Saw on field we saw only remnants or those which came out later. Was it some donation to God or even ancient Gods or something else - I don't know.

[Janis Ruksans]

Best specimen there was found by Zhirair. I passed it some meters side of it. It was purest white speciosus specimen. In my travels I saw only 3 white blooming Crocus speciosus individuals - one on Crimea (not purest white, but could be accepted as such), another was subsp. bolensis (it didn't bloomed with me yet, so I can't judge howreally white it is), but now I saw really purest white. Common cultivar 'Albus' has straw yellow throat, but in this from Ijevan even throat is glistening white. Greatest advantage is that it is good splitter. There were clump from 2 flowering plants (one in bud), two without flowers and some cormlets. So will be good garden plant. Zhirair decided to name it 'Anahit' by ancient Armenian goddess of love and fidelity. Same name has his mother, too. I think very good choice. On first picture is plant with open flower in wild, on following two is that one collected in bud and potted. It nicely opened on Zhirair's apartments balcony. To compare - one more traditionally coloured specimen. On last picture you can see Zhirair in front of church complex.

[Janis Ruksans]

Ijevan is not very far from Vanadzor, so we return back to Zhirairs home. Next morning we will start for 2 days long trip to very SE end of Armenia - district of Goris where is another population of Crocus speciosus. Night was cold and in mountains were snowing. Snow went quite far down as you can judge by picture #1, but day is warm and sunny. Road is far going up and down, passing several ridges and finally in late afternoon we reach Goris. In front of us are black (really black) clouds and it looks that there is raining cats and dogs + hail. It seems that elements pass us and we got only short shower. In Goris we at first are taking very good lunch - kebabs and beer for me and Zhirair and cola for our driver. Short talk with pub-owner and we know where to drive for crocuses. Temperature dramatically dropped, it is only some degrees above zero. Sky is partly closed by clouds, it is quite dark, but we want only to find the locality for returning next morning. Soon after passing city-border starts cultivated fields - and there it is - growing in incredible numbers on ploughed up field were just-just are sawn wheat. And it is covered by crocuses. Not easy to judge - where are more crocuses - on recently ploughed field or on that which was cultivated a year before and now left untouched. On untouched grassland there are very few specimens only and nothing in shrubs. So this is Crocus speciosus type which gives preference to open fields contrary to most of others which prefers shrubland. On open fields I saw only subsp. bolensis and archibaldiorum. All others preferred shaded position entering open meadow only at borderzone with trees or shrubs. Here just opposite. Only Crocus bolensis seem equally comfortable both - on open yaila and under trees, but in very light conditions. Subsp. archibaldiorum I collected only few samples by leaves, on open spots, but I don't know is it growing in shrubland or not.
Here was hail and all crocuses are broken down and have damaged flowers. Only very few stay with undamaged buds.

[Janis Ruksans]

Night we are passing in hotel Goris and in morning after good breakfast return to this crocus site. It is partly cloudy, quite cool (during this trip we expected dramatical changes of temperature during day - from + 17 C to minus 4) and crocuses are very lazy to open. But some pictures are possible. Question is - what is this crocus? When in evening I saw color pattern - my first idea that it could be subsp. archibaldiorum. Geographically it is very close to its area and outside colour has prominent wide stripes although of different pattern than on Iranian plants. But flower colour in crocuses are very variable. Now I judge inside colour. Throat colour is almost invariably lighter or darker yellow, position of stigma in most cases is at tips of anthers or only slightly overtopping them, but it is very variable. I found specimens with stigmatic branches well overtopping anthers. On last picture - Zhirair and I on tilth crocus field.

[Janis Ruksans]

As on every ploughed field crocus corms lie extremely deep. More easy to collect some samples on parts which where not recently ploughed up. There soil still are dry and not sticky, but on those which were ploughed and sawn - yesterdays rain entered deep and clay became extremely sticky. In such situation Zhirairs small spade is very comfortable, but my dandelion digger which is very handy on rocky soil, here is almost unusable. But ploughing pushed thousands of corms on surface. Many are damaged, many killed by sun but there are plenty of perfect corms - only one fault - it isn't possible to judge about colour of flower. My favourites are deeply coloured specimens with well expressed striping. Zhirair more is looking for deeply coloured or very light specimens. Unfortunately most of flowers are damaged and those coming up now still closed. Variation here is extremely great but not so easy to catch it on pictures. Zhirair found one of his dream plants - it is perfectly deep purple-lilac flower completely without nervation, but it was completely out of "photogenic shape".
We are going further and there again new and new cultivated fields. Here they were still not ploughed so completely covered with flowers. It is something higher by altitude and so blooming started earlier, but flowers are generally lighter and more uniform in colour.

[Janis Ruksans]

Not easy to prepair herbarium sheets - bulbs are very deep in soil and flower tube is so long that my travel press is too small for them and I must to bend stem. On this entry some more pictures from Goris population (between them one of lightest seen by me, but not collected) and at end Zhirair with our driver Aren staying on crocus field. Really it is one of richest crocus fields seen by me. Something similar I saw only with Crocus heuffelianus in Eastern Carpathians and in some place of Crocus chrysanthus where it densely covered yaila in central Turkey.
Crocuses accompany us almost up to border with Republic of Nagorny Karabach. They grow in full sunshine on every cultivated field, but nowhere between stones or in forested areas. By corm features it looks as archibaldiorum, but final decision can be maid only after DNA checking. Ecology, colour type (although different), geographical situation and morphology strongly resembles C. speciosus subsp. archibaldiorum.

[ashley]

It's really fascinating to see these pictures from Crimea and Armenia Janis; landscapes, people and beautiful plants that most of us have little chance of seeing otherwise.  Thank you for showing them.

Why do you think crocus populations near Goris seem to prefer cultivated fields?  Could it be that ploughing disperses cormlets, or that regular disturbance of soil structure suits them better?

[Janis Ruksans]

It's really fascinating to see these pictures from Crimea and Armenia Janis; landscapes, people and beautiful plants that most of us have little chance of seeing otherwise.  Thank you for showing them.

Why do you think crocus populations near Goris seem to prefer cultivated fields?  Could it be that ploughing disperses cormlets, or that regular disturbance of soil structure suits them better?

I suppose that cultivated fields has more nutriments. Corms there were gigantic - in average around 3 times or even more large than at Ijevan where they grew in shaded areas. Really they were of same size as those offered by commercial growers.
I suppose that those from Goris genetically needs more sun, but those from Ijevan prefers more shaded position. There were open fields at Ijevan surrounded by crocuses but no one in full sun, but at Goris only very few on field edges and almost no one in shrubs. Another feature noted at Goris was forming cormlets in abundance, although at Ijevan we found cormlets, too, but not so abundantly. On first field blooming only started as digging some flowering corm we opened several with shoot tips close to soil surface and several which only started to show nose out of corm.