Crocus September 2017

[pehe]

Grown from own seeds 2014: Crocus vallicola x scharojanii flavus. It looks almost as vallicola, but the color a bit more yellowish and the throat without purple lines and yellow dots.
Below is a typical  Crocus vallicola.
The last one is a nice form of Crocus suworovianus

Poul

[sokol]

Nice pictures Poul. Here no sign of Crocus vallicola, probably no flowers this year. But some others are starting to flower now.

Crocus cappadocicus


Crocus kotschyanus leucopharinx


Crocus mazziaricus ex Chelmos


Crocus pumilus ex Afendis, Crete


Crocus banaticus

[Yann]

After torrential rains the very few Crocus in bloom are now in bad state. Crocus kotschyanus has started to bloom.

[Janis Ruksans]

Grown from own seeds 2014: Crocus vallicola x scharojanii flavus. It looks almost as vallicola, but the color a bit more yellowish and the throat without purple lines and yellow dots.
Below is a typical  Crocus vallicola.
The last one is a nice form of Crocus suworovianus

Poul

Very nice hybrid and pleasant colour! I tried such cross this autumn - pollinated few vallicola and few suworovianus flowers with pollen from scharojanii flavus.

[Janis Ruksans]

I'm still repotting and repotting. Yesterday finished with Muscari s.l., today almost all Ornithogalums were potted, remained some 50 pots and then will start potting of Irises. In evenings, when tired from mowing of pots I'm writing planting books, recording position of each pot but meanwhile crocuses are blooming and everyday some new flowers comes out, although blooming still isn't very abundant. Seem that it is caused by unusual weather. We had horrible rains and Paeonia field for two days looked as lake. All wheat fields around our house still stay unharvested just for raining every day. But some nice crocuses bloom and I will try to show you some.
Still blooms Crocus autranii - here pictures of true, unhibridized plants sent to me by Dima, who collected them for me at locus classicus in Abkhazia.
Blooms some of large "speciosus" group.
As always marvellous is Crocus bolensis
And especially beautiful again is Crocus brachyfilus, named by me as subsp. elegans, which more responds to this beautiful species.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus cappadocicus every autumn surprises me by variation in its flowers. All those are from Southern population. I'm still looking for some plants from Northern population

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus gilanicus I have for many years, but only in spring 2016 collected few plants by myself in Iran. Now they blooms for the first time. Crocus gilanicus easy hybridizes with Crocus autranii. F-1 seedlings all as one looks identical with C. autranii and you can separate them only having side by side - hybrids are slightly smaller and lighter, but seeing alone identification is impossible. In F-2 starts great splitting. Here pictures of true C. gilanicus from NW Iran and F-2 generation hybrids from cross with autranii.

[Yann]

Janis, cappadocicus is magnificent 

[Janis Ruksans]

Blooms true Crocus pallasii. True pallasii I think is growing in Crimea, Ukraine (at present occupied by Russia), how far it reaches in West and South, I don't know. In Macedonia and in Greece it is replaced by C. macedonicus (not blooming yet) - very similar by flowers, but with different corm tunics. What is status of so named "pallasii" from Aegean Islands and SW Turkey? This enigma can be solved only by DNA research, not available for me at present. This problem is highlighted in review about my book published in "The Alpine Gardener" of AGS.

[Janis Ruksans]

Here picture of so named "pallasii"from W Turkey - the first from many which started blooming - usually they blooms after Crimean typical pallasii.
Similar problem is with C. mazziaricus. My hard opinion is that true mazziaricus grow only on Pelloponesse but on mainland Greece, Aegean Islands and in Turkey it is replaced by other species. Plants from Pelloponesse are whitish but those in direction to East are blue.
From other Greek species started blooming of C. hadriaticus.

[Janis Ruksans]

Still are blooming Crocus suworovianus and Crocus vallicola. They were between the first this season and now still are in flowers although now their blooming goes to end. In this entry unusual forms of C. suworovianus and f. lilacinus. I collected such together with white ones in E Turkey and between seedlings comes out white and lilac specimens. Are they pure suworovianus or even wild hybrids - again only DNA can explain this.
Another shown here is C. vallicola. That from Zigana pass has very typical appendages ("tails") on flower segments tips, in that from Artvin they are less expressed. Sometimes only position of corm in soil can allow identification between both species (on Soģanli pass, and some Artvin individuals).

[Janis Ruksans]

Still more about confusing crocuses. One of the most confusing is "speciosus" group. No one put under doubt Mathew's ilgazensis and xantholaimos. Ilgazensis really is the smallest and earliest from this group, can be overpassed only by Crimean C. puringii, which can bloom even at end of July. C. xantholaimos even at locus classicus sometimes has very pale yellow throat. No problems to separate mine C. ibrahimii and C. sakariensis. Less easy and sometimes can confuse C. archibaldiorum and C. brachyphilus. Others need more careful checking of minor morphological details which can be quite variable and the best is use of genetics for checking number of chromosomes and their morphology which is very different in C. puringii, bolensis, striatulus (of HKEP). But there are still several isolated populations throughout Turkey and most likely in Iran, too.

[Janis Ruksans]

Some more pictures from yesterday. Today again is too cloudy for pictures, but few more species started blooming, although flowers remained in bud (CC. banaticus, pulchellus albus).
The first two pictures are from C. cancellatus. By locality seem to be type species, but as in C. pallasi sometimes identification is not easy, although this sample looks correctly identified.
On next pair of pictures extremely rare in cultivation C. hakkariensis. I got it from Dirk (many thanks!) and this one turned true species. Before that all what I got under this name turned wrongly named. Later I received some other samples collected at locus classicus.

[Janis Ruksans]

Similarly rare is true C. karduchorum. Problem is that it most likely easy hybridises with other related species - typical plants must to have white stigmatic branches (although I saw wild plants with slightly yellowish toned branches, too). Between seedlings appear individuals with yellow stigmas. Here you can see F-2 seedlings of C. karduchorum.
From European crocuses the first which starts blooming this year is C. salzmannii.
And last picture for today - Crocus turcicus from C. pallasii group.

[Janis Ruksans]

Today here started Indian Summer. The first day in last month without rain. I'm still repotting my collection. Today finished Gladiolus and American non-Alliums, but tomorrow I will start with bulbous irises. Of course during day a lot of crocuses were pictured, too, but those I will show you tomorrow (I hope...). Today something different but related to crocuses.
Crocuses are excellent honey source for different insects. They are pollinating flowers and rewarded by nectar. But there are some "clever" visitors who learned how to get sweet without "payment". On the first 3 pictures you can see some moth which reach nectar from side, pushing long tongue (see on 2nd picture) between flower segments.
Last two shows diligent worker - common honey bee covered by pollens and coming out from flower along stigma leaving on its sticky surface a lot of pollens ensuring good seed crop.