Crocus March - 2019

[Janis Ruksans]

The first two pictures are from 2 slightly different gatherings of Crocus leichtlinii
Then unusually coloured hybrid between yellow C. angustifolius from Crimea, Ukraine and blue C. reticulatus from Bessarabia (Moldavia). Usually hybrids are yellow, but this one is purest white.
And last two are 2 colour forms of C. leucostylosus - as name predicts, they has white stigmas.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus michelsonii (the first 2 pictures) just ends blooming here.
This white Crocus mawii form is one of the best in this species.
Crocus malatyensis is slightly variable between populations, but one of the best species from its region.
And Crocus muglaensis finished blooming yesterday.

[Janis Ruksans]

Now on my Crocus beds starts domination of European crocuses.
The first is quite popular Crocus malyi
Crocus mediotauricus comes from near Gundogmus in Turkey
And last 3 pictures this morning is from various gatherings of Crocus neapolitanus

[Janis Ruksans]

I still continue showing some pictures of last week. They are arranged not by dates when pictures were taken but in alphabetical order and some today already finished blooming. Still new new and new flowers come out, but those I will picture next week.
The first is C. olivieri Albina found by Ibrahim. It well reproduces itself from seeds.
Then from reticulata group - C. orphei from Falakro mnt. in Greek Macedonia.
C. pallidus was collected in Serbia
Next I got as pseudonubigena from Norman Stevens, reported from Halkis Dag in Turkey, but is it correctly named, I still didn't checked. In this sample anthers are yellow.
The last could be true C. roopiae, although has pale yellowish colour in throat. It comes from Iran, W of lake Urmiye.

[Janis Ruksans]

Now I start with C. antalyensis subsp. striatus. Is it worth of name, I can't judge. It is published from very small population of few hundred plants only.
Next is the best form of Crocus ruksansii, published by Dima Zubov.
Crocus salurdagensis JATU-047 was collected by me on Salur Dag, but published by HKEP
Next - Crocus sanandajensis 17IRS-081 - is another HKEP plant but in this case from Iran. Collected by my Czech friend, whilst I departed from group searching for another crocus from nr. Hamedan. Vaclav all corms donated to me. I was already almost finished with its description, when it was published by HKEP.
Crocus sarichinarensis I found and published from Sarichinar Dag, W from Antalya. Here its albino form - Alba

[Janis Ruksans]

Now in three entries will go selected forms of Crocus sieberi from Omalos Plain on Crete, Greece.

[Janis Ruksans]

The 2nd entry with selected forms of Crocus sieberi from Omalos Plain on Crete, Greece. The third picture shows the form constantly most flowers has such "horns" on segments inside. Flowers are very large, too.

[Janis Ruksans]

Three more selections from Crocus sieberi (WHITE GIANT has the largest flowers, so its name) and then Crocus sozenii, named after Ibrahim Sozen and Crocus taseliensis from S Turkey, published by HKEP.

[Janis Ruksans]

Now 4 pictures from different Iranian gatherings, still without names and Turkish C. tahtaliensis from Tahtali Dag, published by HKEP.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus sublimis CREME DIAMOND was raised by Dirk
but SPARTACUS (2 pictures) by Augis Dambrauskas from Lithuania - very bright selection
Crocus tauricus red form comes from Crimea (Ukraine - territory occupied by Russia)
Crocus uschakensis  - from Uschak Province in Turkey

[Janis Ruksans]

Three selections of Crocus tommasinianus.
Then Crocus tomoricus. It is published from Albania, but this was collected in Greece. At present I regard it as tomoricus, but could be new species related to C. veluchensis.
And last is C. vaclavii from Athos peninsula - Monk state in Greece, where it is growing just on seaside only few meters above see level, were are getting salt-water showers during strong storms.

[Janis Ruksans]

Crocus sp. collected along road from Derebucak to Aydikent, Turkey - got from Gothenburg Botanical Garden (90-1609)
And then four selected clones of Crocus versicolor

[Janis Ruksans]

The last entry for today is showing 2 pictures of extremely valuable Crocus vitellinus ARGI-0296 - collected in 2002 in Syria, not more reachable and so even more valuable.
Crocus yakarianus from Central Turkey was published by Osman Erol.
Crocus yalovensis is more known as blue form of C. pestalozzae.
Crocus ziyaretensis  is growing in mountains near Antalya, S Turkey.

[Yann]

the vitellinus is very nice!
Crocus veluchensis, sown in 2016

[Tomte]

Wow, impressive as ever. That tommasianus with white pointed flowers is gorgeousI wanted to show some pictures of the crocus meadow in the Munich Botanical Garden, made a few weeks ago. It's covered with Tommies..
This weekend, most of them are gone over. Now the scenery has changed, currently one can see Chionodoxa, Scilla bifolia and Crocus flavus.
And blooming for the first time with me, Crocus heuffelianus 'Carpathian Wonder.' Just opened today.