Crocus September 2017

[sokol]

Wonderful Crocus and pictures and interesting how clever those insects can be.

Some pictures from the last days.

[ashley]

Wonderful pristine crocuses Janis  
Here in my garden karduchorum, vallicola and pulchellus struggled against the rain and slugs this year.

Very interesting to see a Latvian honeybee.  Are they usually so yellow?

[Janis Ruksans]

Wonderful pristine crocuses Janis  
Here in my garden karduchorum, vallicola and pulchellus struggled against the rain and slugs this year.

Very interesting to see a Latvian honeybee.  Are they usually so yellow?

Latvian native bees are darker and very furious, tended to swarming. I worked with them in young years. They are very winter hard and productive. But now true (clean, unhibridized strains) are only in few isolated localities. I'm working now with Kraina strain - peaceful and productive. Not so good in our winters, but working with them is pleasure.

[Janis Ruksans]

The first banaticus opened flower - this one comes from Trajanus. Unusually early this year.
Next two pictures are from Crocus gilanicus collected last spring in NW Iran, on coastal ridge at altitudes from 2000 - 2700 m.
Then again one of F-2 hybrids between gilanicus and autranii. Interesting that as the first always blooms white forms and then follows those lilac ones.
And crocus on the last picture always confuses me - it is C. suworovianus lilacinus from Kisidagi gec (2120 m alt.). Never before it was so dark. I checked all my picture library from former years. If it wouldn't be September but spring by the first impression I would  name it as C. veluchensis or C. pelistericus.

[Janis Ruksans]

Some species from C. speciosus group archibaldiorum, brachyfilus and C. zubovii and
hybrid between ilgazensis and pulchellus named by me 'Fantasy' and as last - albino of C. pulchellus

[Yann]

lovely sets of crocuses, no sign of them here. Still too warm.

[Janis Ruksans]

some mistake happens, making double entry

[Janis Ruksans]

Between seedlings of C.salzmannii appear few white individuals. Original white cultivar 'El Torchal' turned virus infected and was destroyed few years ago.
Blooms quite special "pallasii"- JJJ-016. It was marked for herbarium and pressed today.
Not pleasant was blooming of 2 mazziaricus between plants labeled as C. georgii, but this perfectly explains situation why this species was overlooked for so long. Its story is well explained in B. Mathew's Monograph. Following his advices I successfully found locality and collected some corms, but corm tunics of both are so similar, that identification of them without flowering time and leaves seem close to impossible. Leaves of georgii is so distinctly ribbed that these are easy observable even in herbarium (see photo in my Monograph).
Blooming of autumn crouses still is very sparse, although many started to show out noses and leaf tips.

[sokol]

Nice pictures as always Janis and an impressive look over your collection.

I have some Crocus that puzzled me last year. I have got them as Crocus salmannii. Today they opened their flowers together with Crocus zubovii and I realised that they are probably this species.

Crocus zubovii



probably Crocus zubovii


probably Crocus zubovii


probably Crocus zubovii

[tonyg]

In the open garden:
Crocus boryi x tournefortii
Crocus niveus
Crocus tournefortii
Crocus nudiflorus
All have been outside here for years, the niveus at least 15 years, the tournefortii 25 years!

[tonyg]

In pots- all seed raised:
Crocus banaticus  from seed sown Autumn 2014, one early flower
Crocus goulimyi raised from wild collected seed.
Crocus goulimyi leucanthus
Crocus pulchellus
Crocus ilgazensis LB 599 from near the type locality

[tonyg]

More potted crocus again all seed raised:
Crocus karduchorum
Crocus kotschyanus
Crocus salzmannii - three subtly different forms.

[Janis Ruksans]

Nice pictures as always Janis and an impressive look over your collection.

I have some Crocus that puzzled me last year. I have got them as Crocus salmannii. Today they opened their flowers together with Crocus zubovii and I realised that they are probably this species.

Crocus zubovii
(Attachment Link)

Afraid that it is some seedling of commercial cultivars of "C. speciosus". Crocus zubovii in type forms must to have striped cataphylls, although not always. I haven't picture of zubovii cataphylls, but they are similar to those of hellenicus (attached here) although in zubovii stripes are not so impressive. Unfortunately not always cataphylls are striped. C. zubovii never was offered commercially and up to now is grown only in few collections of travellers who visited its locality and collected there few corms.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus speciosus group is very difficult for identification. Here I'm showing two (may be 3) different ones. The first is Crocus bolensis. Its main feature is stigmatic branches ending level with anthers or below their tips, although even in Locus classicus I saw small group of 5 plants with stigma well overtopping anthers. On the first picture are plants from Lake Abant - type locality. On picture #2 plants from Ballidaģ, located quite distantly to East - both grow in +/- shaded positions between trees, not much entering open meadows. On the #3 - plants from  Kuyucak Yaila, located between both, but growing on open yaila in full sun, and there stigmatic branches mostly overtop anthers, so is it still bolensis or something else, isn't possible to judge without DNA, but I would be careful to name it as "bolensis". Status of bolensis can be doubted, because of different chromosome number and of different chromosome morphology.

On last two pictures very special "speciosus" blooming with me for the first time. It was collected in Iran in spring, 2016. It was growing at altitudes 2300-2700 m on open meadow, and was distinctly stoloniferous, length of stolones at least 5 cm (see picture in my book), forming very small corms, only few were with 3 leaves, and actually I'm very surprising for its blooming this autumn. It was found in direction to East from locality of C. archibaldiorum. Even C. arhibaldiorum this year surprises me - usually having stigmatic branches hidden between or +/- level with anther tips, this autumn gave stigmas much overtopping anthers (in sample HKEP-1553), still keeping typical colour pattern of C. archibaldiorum.

[ashley]

Latvian native bees are darker and very furious, tended to swarming. I worked with them in young years. They are very winter hard and productive. But now true (clean, unhibridized strains) are only in few isolated localities. I'm working now with Kraina strain - peaceful and productive. Not so good in our winters, but working with them is pleasure.

Similarly here Janis, where our native black bees are more feisty but better adapted to the climate.  Usually I can work them without gloves but rarely without a suit - except when approaching a swarm    

Crocus banaticus