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Dear Crocus enthusiasts,Although I find these sold as 'C. clusii' flowers very appealing I have my doubts whether indeed 'C. clusii' is the correct name.It's quite a vigorous grower; perhaps they are hybrids with an unidentified parent or a form of either C. salzmannii or C. serotinus?In short I am a bit puzzled and hoping perhaps any of the more experienced 'crocophiles' recognizes it?
Crocus Sunspot, slugs have taken a fancy to it too
The third new-comer comes from Kos Island and was found there by Greek nature enthusiast Theodoro Samaras who sent me its pictures this autumn asking for name. I immediately suspected that it is something very special and invited Theo to join me in travel to Kos where he showed me this crocus and it was in full bloom, allowing to get full impression about its features and variability, confirming that it really is new species and I named it after its discoverer Theo Samaras. On pictures Crocus samarasii, its habitat and Theo picturing his crocus at locus classicus.
We regularly show the above photographs to various SRGC members and Rock Garden Groups in a presentation ‘Autumn Bulbs of the Aegean’ which also includes other Crocus species on islands from which they have not been recorded. So, for example, what we would call Crocus pallasii also occurs on Kalimnos and Fourni, C. tournefortii is on Nisyros and C. cartwrightianus on Idra. These islands are not well botanised in autumn and we try to encourage others to collect more records. If members thought they were going to be finding new species on every island they visited, there might be more interest! Here are a few Crocus photos from Kalimnos from which C. mazziaricus is the only Crocus species recorded in the ‘Atlas of the Aegean Flora’.
In autumn 2014, David and I visited Kos and on 10th and 19th November climbed to the top of Mt. Dikeos where we found two species of Crocus which we identified as C. mazziaricus and C. pallasii. Do the latter (photos below) fall within your circumscription of C. samarasii, Janis, and if so, please could you clarify how they differ from C. pallasii? They were found at an altitude of 750-804 metres.
On pictures no mazziaricus seen. Comments about differences were before. I'm simply not very handy with using of homepage.
Sorry, Margareth. I re-reead published text and found that small part disappear during editing by my language corrector or during re-editing later by publishers. The main differences which can be easy observed, is in position of stigmatic branches. In samarasii stigma branches practically invariably ends at middle of anthers, but in pallasii usually at tips or higher, in elder flowers and in cultivation almost always overtop anthers, but in samarasii "remain" below tips (if shrivelled anthers will be straightened, you will see this - see pictures of samarasii flower details in previous entry). I attached pictures illustrating this and you can see pallasii flower pictures here below as well. Digging out plants you will find that in pallasii reticulation of finely fibrous tunics start only at tip, but in samarasii much lower - around middle or even below. This disappeared from published text. But comparing description of samarasii with perfect and detailed description of pallasii you will see this. I attach here few pictures of C. pallasii from locus classicus in Crimea and in cultivation.