2017 AGS "Galanthus of the Black Sea" Tour

[Alan_b]

One still to feature, Mariette.

[Alan_b]

Looking at more examples of Galanthus shaoricus, the leaves frequently look quite green as they appear





You can see ridges along the leaves with the light shining through - but I think many snowdrops show this feature.



After a while I found some more mature plants and these seemed much more normal (i.e. like alpinus and elwesii) in leaf colour.

[Alan_b]

Andy Byfield talked about two camps, the 'Lumpers' and the 'Splitters'.  Splitters see small differences as significant and will therefore tend to "create" large numbers of species.  Lumpers see small differences as variability within a species so will tend to "create" far fewer species with more variability within each species.  Just a few miles away from my house is the Genome Campus where they helped map the human genome and the genomes of lots of other fauna.  I fail to understand how, with all this technology now available, we can remain so ignorant about the genetic make-up of flora like snowdrops.

I am not a botanist and I'm sure I miss hundreds of subtleties but to my ignorant eyes Galanthus shaoricus is not that different from Galanthus alpinus and it would not surprise me if one day they get lumped together.  Time will tell.   

[Alan_b]

Although it's a poor photo, i did find the odd green tip amongst the shaoricus population.

[Alan_b]

We then travelled on to Lake Shaori, whcih is actually a reservoir I believe.  One of our party had been there before with veteran snowdrop expert Colin Mason and had visited a site where he had found four snowdrop species in close proximity.  Today it was not to be.



 

We were too early in the season and snow still covered most of the ground.  Even in the odd clear patch, such as the one we stopped at for our picnic lunch, very few flowers had yet managed to emerge.

As one does, I had been trying to learn to say hello in Georgian.  Georgian has its own alphabet, of 34 letters if I remember correctly, but many signs are also rendered in the Latin alphabet in an attempt to attract tourists.  "Gamarjoba" means "hello" - this was the first and only time I saw it written down.



By the way, I wrote earlier that the Geogian currency was called Larry.  I should confess that it is more usually latinised as Lari.

[Alan_b]

What to do after lunch?  We were in Tolha's hands and Tolkha decided to head for "The Village" and the nearby site of Galanthus platypyllus.  Given the conditions at Lake Shaori, this was an act of great optimism - but sometimes fortune favours the brave.  So, after a long drive we found ourselves on a road going up the valley towards the mountains, following the course of the River Rioni.  I have since looked on Google Maps and the road is described there as the Kutaisi-Alpana-Mamisoni Pass.  Initially driving was good but we got to a section where the road was very heavily potholed (presumably still awaiting repair after winter) so our driving pace slowed to that of a fast jog.  There was snow all around us and we were heading upwards.  We met a car heading down, spoke to the drive and he confirmed that "The Village" was under snow.  So we made the sensible decision and decided to turn round.  This was easier said than done so we passengers got out to stretch our legs whilst our minibus drove off to find a turning space.

Here is the view thereabouts



Our bus coming back



The roadside

   

[Alan_b]

On the way up, both Jo and I thought we had glimpsed some snowdrops.  On the way back down we were now on the wrong side of the bus but Pat caught sight of them so we stopped to investigate.  Wonder-of wonders, miracle-of-miracles we had found Galanthus platyphyllus growing at a lower altitude and in flower.

[Alan_b]

I am completely besotted with Galanthus platyphyllus; it is such a pretty snowdrop.

Look at the beautiful bright green leaves



And the shape of those outer petals with the little point at the end



The inner petals lack the notch of most snowdrop species.  And there is a diffuse green mark towards the base (I'm not sure how frequent this is).  There also tends to be a bit of green at the base of the outer petals; that's quite a rare thing in snowdrops.



Surely everyone will want to take their photograh?

[Alan_b]

A few more



Jo demonstrates the one she found with an extra outer petal.



I don't tire of seeing these



But if you do, the view isn't bad either.

[Mariette]

The more Iīm grateful to learn about it from You!

The G. platyphyllus You show are beautiful finds, too! Indeed, there is nothing looking so springlike fresh like white snowdrops with green leaves at the end of winter. As You mentioned, they look odd planted side by side with grey-leaved drops - thatīs why I try to collect the green-leaved ones.

[Alan_b]

We stopped further down the road/river and chanced upon more of an alpinus-like species.  Almost an anticlimax after the joy of finding platyphyllus.





It was dark before we got back to Kutaisi and our driver got lost trying to find our obscurely-located residence - which was this place http://elitetravel.ge/en/hotels/kutaisi/hotel-zelimkhan .  You can see that the hallway floors were attractive, the rooms not so much. 
 

[Alan_b]

... - thatīs why I try to collect the green-leaved ones.

I hope you have 'Green Light', Mariette.  That is one I found some years ago now - and the reason why we jokingly attached my name to any snowdrop we found on this trip that had bright green leaves when they are normally glaucous.

[Alan_b]

Day 8 (14/3/17) - Last day.

We had enjoyed 6 days in Turkey and Georgia and the weather had been consistently warm and usually sunny.  We awoke on our last day to find it was raining and a good deal cooler.  We were flying out from Batumi, which was several hours away in our minibus.  We stopped en-route to photograph this statue to a hero of the revolution; although I'm not sure who or which.

[Alan_b]

Our flight was not until late afternoon so we had time for a lightening tour of Batumis's huge Botanic Gardens.



 

[Alan_b]

That's the nearest we got to see Galanthus krasnovii, a large poster



a few leaves...



and the remains of a single flower