Eranthis 2014

[Leena]

I have bought this Eranthis as E.hyemalis, but now that I have looked at your photos, I'm having doubts. Can you tell what species this is?

[WimB]

I have bought this Eranthis as E.hyemalis, but now that I have looked at your photos, I'm having doubts. Can you tell what species this is?

Leena, I would say that's E. cilicica you have there!

[astragalus]

Finally in bloom, Eranthis hyemalis.  Is this correct?

[Leena]

Leena, I would say that's E. cilicica you have there!

Thank you Wim!
It seems that here if you buy E.hyemalis, you get E.cilicica, I have bought it twice and I know some friends too, who have it under the wrong name. I don't know why that is.

[Alan_b]

It's pretty much the same here in England.  In March my local garden centre was selling 'winter aconites' in large and small pots.  The small ones were wrongly labelled  'Eranthis hyemalis' whilst the large ones were correctly labelled 'Eranthis cilicica.  In my part of south England, the flowering time for the two species is about two months different!  Hyemalis flowers from very early in January going on to late February and cilicica flowers from late February onwards (over a much shorter period).

[Leena]

In a normal colder and more snowy winter they both flower about the same time here (or start only days apart, a week at the most), but  a friend of mine has a real E.hyemalis and this year it started to flower earlier (a month maybe) than my E.cilicica.

[astragalus]

Nothing blooms here in January.  Even in a winter with no January snow, the ground is frozen solid.  Is the picture I showed hyemalis or cilica?

[Alan_b]

Cilicica has more deeply-divided leaves and more reddish stems.  Your photo does not show the stems but I thought that the leaves look more like cilcica than hyemalis.  I was hoping Wim would come a long and give you the benefit of his much greater expertise.

[astragalus]

OK, now I'm really confused.  It was bought many years ago as E. hyemalis.  I just checked the stems - some are totally green, others have some red.

[astragalus]

Hope this is enough detail.  The eranthis (?) have been multiplying for many years and now cover quite a bit of territory.  There seems to be great variability in stem color.

[Alan_b]

Oops, maybe I should have kept quiet.  In the picture we have cilicica centre and right and hyemalis left.  You may see that the leaf-frond to gap ratio is higher for hyemalis than cilicica because the deep gaps between leaf fronds tend to be wider and more numerous for cilicica.  You will also see that the stems of cilicica are perfectly green, the red colouration present when the leaves are newly-emerged must disappear with age.

On the basis of your close-ups I'm more inclined to favour hyemalis.  In the UK the statistics for any well-established winter aconites are vastly in favour of them being hyemalis. 

Edit:  Sorry, got interrupted and forgot to attach the picture I wanted to refer to, now corrected

[Maggi Young]

It may be that hyemalis and cilicia are just continuations of one species - though there are sufficient differences in timing and hardiness to make it useful for gardeners to keep a distinction.  There is so little about plants that is completely "cut and dried".

 I'd come down on the side of hyemalis..... for what that's worth!

[astragalus]

Thanks, Alan and Maggi.  I agree, Maggi - not much is cut and dried.  This population developed from one small planting which has been undisturbed for years.  There are some variations within the population but no color breaks that I've noticed.  It is one of my most enjoyed plantings since there isn't much else to distract the eye at this time.

[Leena]

Thanks Alan for the picture about differences.

- though there are sufficient differences in ... hardiness to make it useful for gardeners to keep a distinction.  T

Maggi, do you mean that the other one is less hardy than the other one? Which one?

[Alan_b]

Leena, I don't know if the same is true in Finland but in the UK you can find large swathes of Eranthis hyemalis in churchyards, well-established gardens etc.  Once established they seed prolifically and do not seem to attract any attention from slugs or snails.  Maybe over the years of self-seeding we have bred a hardier strain of this plant but it is perfectly hardy here despite its origins in more southerly parts of Europe.

I have never yet seen Eranthis cilicica naturalized so it is either less hardy or much less common or both.  It would be interesting to know where the ones we can buy in garden centres are raised.

The interesting thing to me is whether some of the other rarerly-grown Eranthis species that are generally cosseted and grown under glass might be capable of becoming garden plants.