2017 AGS "Galanthus of the Black Sea" Tour

[Alan_b]

No guesses as to the identity of the lady on the ledge, Maggi?  She is a National Collection holder but not of snowdrops.

[Alan_b]

Day 3 (9/3/17):  We awoke to a beautiful sunny day and the happy revelation that the area around our hotel was clear from snow.  We were staying at the Ridos Thermal Hotel & Spa: http://en.ridosotel.com.tr/ .  It was indeed a thermal hotel as my room was so hot that I had to sleep the night with the balcony door open, lulled to sleep by the loud roar of the nearby river as it rushed downwards past the hotel.  The plan for the day was to forget about snowdrops (difficult for me) and see instead hundred of thousands of crocuses.  But first we stopped in the local town, Ikizdere, to get provisions for lunch.  Travellers, give this town a miss. 

I wandered down the road a little way and took three perfectly innocuous pictures; these are two (the third is a bit blurred):





You can see our minibus parked up the street in the second picture.  But I had not walked back to it before I was stopped by a young and (I'm told) attractive policeman in plain clothes.  He did not speak English so i introduced him to Sema, she was able to explain why we were there and he went away seemingly satisfied.  But before we could make our getaway two uniformed policemen arrived in their police car.  Perhaps they were bored but they insisted that we drive down to the police station where, although we were allowed to remain in the bus, they searched all our bags.  After some delay and pleadings by Sema on our behalf we were allowed to go on our way.

[Alan_b]

Although today's mission was to see crocuses, as we drove upwards from Ikizdere the sharp-eyed amongst us caught sight of some snowdrops growing by the side of the road so we stopped the minibus to take a look.  Mostly they were growing on the rocky banks at the side of the road



Andy identified these as Galanthus alpinus



However their leaves were very ridged, which is supposed to be a major feature to distinguish Galanthus koenianus which we saw on the previous day.





There were one or two there with rather bright green leaves, too.

[Alan_b]

The banks were covered with primulas which were much more colourful here:





and there was plenty of Cyclamen coum to see.

[Leena]

Alan, it is so interesting to read about your travel, thank you.
What amazes me is how the plants grow in such  steep and rocky-looking banks, it must get very dry in the summer?

[David Nicholson]

I'm enjoying this Alan, many thanks for posting it.

[Brian Ellis]

and there was plenty of Cyclamen coum to see.

(Attachment Link)

That would please Jo

[Alan_b]

That would please Jo

Yes indeed, Brian, but what pleased her more was finding a different Cyclamen species (the name of which escapes me Tony Willis has reminded me this was Cyclamen parviflorum) on the first day of botany.  I did not see it myself but from her description it is notable for being small with uninteresting leaves.  One for the experts only, I fear.

For those not in the know, Jo is Jo Hynes, AKA "The Lady on the Ledge", and she holds a National Collection of cyclamen.  I'm quite good friends with Jo and it was a real pleasure to find out she was going to be on the same tour as me when I got the list of participants.

[Alan_b]

Back to the morning of day 3:  We continued up a valley that was still covered by a thick layer of snow with some difficult patches on the road.  Eventually we got as far as the bottling plant for the water bottles that we had been drinking at the hotel.  It was evident that traffic to and from this plant was what had kept the road open and it would be dangerous and probably fruitless (for finding crocuses) to proceed further. So we stopped to stretch our legs and I took a few photographs.

This is the water bottling plant with the road we did not take to the right and beyond



We walked up to a tiny village.



The view in the other direction.



A beehive up a tree.  Was this to protect it from bears or some other animal?  Bears can climb trees?!?

   

[Alan_b]

We then walked down the road we had driven up for a way, allowing the minibus to wait for a while and then collect us.  Although the south-facing slopes were clear of snow, there wasn't much to see.

Coltsfoot seems to like growing where there had been a mud slide.



It was too early for much in the way of flowers but we saw some Cyclamen.



and a toad in the road.  Andy suggested it should be rescued before a lorry came by and squashed it but he left Jo to do the dirty work.



The minibus caught up with me just as I had got to a bridge over the river that ran down the valley.

[Alan_b]

We retraced our route and, approaching Ikizdere, Pat spotted more snowdrops so we stopped again.  These turned out to be more Galanthus alpinus, the biggest examples that we found.  Superficially, a big alpinus looks quite like an elwesii.







 

[Alan_b]

We were on a south-facing slope and it was really hot and sunny.  These pictures show the terrain.





Even this early in the year the soil surface was quite dry; I don't know (Leena) how things survive being baked in the summer.

We found a few examples of Iris lazica (Pat liked Irises).



I've forgotten what this is called, although I grow something similar at the back of the garden



After half an hour of looking round I was beginning to burn, the sun was so strong.

[Alan_b]

We went back to the hotel for a drink (and I borrowed some sun cream).



Left to right we see Jo, Andy, Carolyn, the waiter and Pat.  Have I mentioned Carolyn?  She is an expert galanthophile with a large collection that you can visit when she opens her garden in Kent.  She and I were the two newbies to this type of tour.

[mark smyth]

excellent

[Maggi Young]

I think  more of these people involved in that trip are SRGC members and forumists than one might realise.  Some not terribly active these days, but members nonetheless.
 You were being rather coy, Alan, so I thought  they might wish to be  be incognito