Crocus January - 2009

[Janis Ruksans]

Today here was minus 12 C outside and bright sun shining (what will be in night?) I decided to check some pictures from last year trips and to share my impressions with you. I will start with Crocus abantensis – this marvellous beauty self-sowing here in garden and even becoming some kind of weed on my nursery beds. “Fortunally” hard frost a pair of years ago cleaned my old field from this weed (and cleaned it from open field beds where it was planted, too; alived only greenhouse grown plants), but left millions of Crocus heuffelianus self-sawn seedlings. Only hope to find between them in some Spring some nice hybrid.
Nature travels depends from weather extremely. On picture 01 you can see the pass near Abant Boly at my coming to Turkey. Two weeks later I returned hoping for more pictures and found everything covered in deep snow (02). Only 1(!) bloom of C. abantensis had nose out of snow (03). Fortunately I maid a lot of pictures at my first stop although then blooming only started. C. abantensis is very variable in colour – lighter and darker blue but rarely can you find some white (04) or even striped (05) flower. It grows side by side with bright yellow C. ancyrensis (06) and sometimes they hybridise making beautiful hybrid C. x paulinae (07).
In same district is growing Crocus biflorus pulchricolor, too. Only by flower it is not easy to separate both, not surprisingly that C. abantensis was overlooked so long. Picture 08 made very late in evening some 50 km from Abant Bolu on S faced pine forest side surprisingly clean from snow when everything around was covered up to half meter thick snow

[art600]

Janis

If only my weeds of Convolvulus and ground elder could be replaced by Crocus abantensis.

I have a suggestion if you get overrun by this dreadful 'weed' again - 'Pile them high and sell them cheap'.  Your friends who grow Crocus would still regard you as a friend - unlike some of mine to whom I gave an 'attractive' white allium, that they still cannot remove from their gardens.   

Arthur

[Kees Jan]

Here are two pics of what I believe is a hybrid between Crocus cancellatus ssp. cancellatus and Crocus kotschyanus ssp. kotschyanus. I photographed this plant in the mts. above Findikpinari in the Bolkar Daglari, south central Turkey. Can anyone confirm my hybrid theory?

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis

If only my weeds of Convolvulus and ground elder could be replaced by Crocus abantensis.

I have a suggestion if you get overrun by this dreadful 'weed' again - 'Pile them high and sell them cheap'.  Your friends who grow Crocus would still regard you as a friend - unlike some of mine to whom I gave an 'attractive' white allium, that they still cannot remove from their gardens.   

Arthur

Pity, but abantensis were killed by frost. Well know this nice Allium - isn't zebdanense?
Janis

[mark smyth]

Kees that is a lovely snowdrop Crocus.

Crocus ancyrensis was available in some garden centres here last autumn. I didnt buy any just in case they were wrong.

[dominique]

Janis, happy new year and all the best for your marvellous Crocus wich can come in our homes one day !!! abantensis is stunny and I love xpaulinae

Mark, ancyrensis that we find generally is a sterile clone. More  difficult to have the true wild and fertile species. I have some seedlings gived me by a friend. I have to wait twoyears to verify it

[tonyg]

Kees - that is a wonderful and unusual crocus.  (By 'someone' perhaps you mean Janis who is the most well travelled and experienced of us all!)  I presume from your proposed parents that both the named taxa grow in the locality?  Did you excavate to examine the corm tunic?  From the flower shape, colour and markings I see C cancellatus.  The white anthers occur only in ssp pamphylicus which Mathew lists for Antalya and W Icel provinces.  How does this relate to where you were?  (Sorry I have not been to Turkey so the geography is not easy for me to place.)   Some taxa have occasional aberrant forms which might also explain this plant.  I would not have expected these two to hybridise as they are not in the same series in the Mathew Classification however the recent genetic analyisis might alter this view.

[Guff]

Janis, looking forward to your millions of Crocus heuffelianus self-sawn seedlings.
I hope you post some pictures and maybe some closeups shots. I like heuffelianus forms most of all.

Also thanks for the info in other thread.

[Janis Ruksans]

Here are two pics of what I believe is a hybrid between Crocus cancellatus ssp. cancellatus and Crocus kotschyanus ssp. kotschyanus. I photographed this plant in the mts. above Findikpinari in the Bolkar Daglari, south central Turkey. Can anyone confirm my hybrid theory?

Kees,
I don't think that cancellatus can be crossed/crosses with kotschyanus. It looks very close to some of my cancellatus forms.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Janis, looking forward to your millions of Crocus heuffelianus self-sawn seedlings.
I hope you post some pictures and maybe some closeups shots. I like heuffelianus forms most of all.

Also thanks for the info in other thread.

Guff
In attachment few of Crocus heuffelianus pictures from wild and garden. Carpathian Wonder - original plant in wild, found on my first trip to Eastern Carpathians (Ukraine). Cultivar you can see on earlier entry (top 5 crocuses).
Globular Wonder possibly is lost few years ago, still hope to find it old field.
Crocus heuffelianus bed is the largest in my nursery now, another from Crocus versicolor were cleaned by frost (oh, how many beautiful selections of versicolor were lost in this winter).
Few pictures (wild) are scanned from very old slides made on E-German film Orwo - best available during Russian occupation, so sorry for quality.
Would be very pleased to know from whom you got those lost heuffelianus - please write me personally.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Here are two pics of what I believe is a hybrid between Crocus cancellatus ssp. cancellatus and Crocus kotschyanus ssp. kotschyanus. I photographed this plant in the mts. above Findikpinari in the Bolkar Daglari, south central Turkey. Can anyone confirm my hybrid theory?

Sorry for wrong identification earlier - it seem to be Crocus pallasii subsp. pallasii. Note undivided style. Style of Crocus cancellatus is branched. A little confusing is color of anthers which in tipical pallasii is yellow, but it can to varie although I never saw white anthered pallasii. By the place where it is collected it could be subsp. pallasii. All my pallasii aquisitions has more or less striped flowers but some has white throat.
Possibility for cros between pallasii and kotschyanus seem unreal although kotschyanus is growing in this area (according Flora of Turkey).
Janis

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Stunning pictures of the C. heuffelianus Janis. 
I never saw 'Dark wonder' before - it's another really amazing plant !!

Thanks for showing these !!

[Kees Jan]

"I presume from your proposed parents that both the named taxa grow in the locality?  Did you excavate to examine the corm tunic?"

Hello Tony, Janis and others,

I don't think cancellatus pamphylicus is supposed to grow this far east and the style doesn't seems to fit cancellatus. Findikpinar is in E Icel province. I'm attaching a picture of the corm, excavated for identification purposes, it seems to be typical cancellatus.

We found two or three of these forms growing in a cancellatus cancellatus population at relatively high altitude. Kotschyanus kotschyanus wasn't far away though. We certainly did not find pallasii pallasii populations in this area, although the style in the hybrid plants would probably fit pallasii very well. Cancellatus cancellatus seems to be a plant of open mountainous terrain, while kotschyanus was found more often in open coniferous woodland and in deciduous oak scrub.

We found cancellatus ssp. pamphylicus later on in W Icel province.

I'm also attaching a picture of kotschyanus ssp. kotschyanus from Finkdikpinar, style and anthers seem to be quite similar to the 'hybrids'.

[Kees Jan]

This is cancellatus ssp. pamphylicus, photographed in W Icel province. We also found a white form...

[Janis Ruksans]

I don't think cancellatus pamphylicus is supposed to grow this far east and the style doesn't seems to fit cancellatus. Findikpinar is in E Icel province. I'm attaching a picture of the corm, excavated for identification purposes, it seems to be typical cancellatus.

We found two or three of these forms growing in a cancellatus cancellatus population at relatively high altitude. Kotschyanus kotschyanus wasn't far away though. We certainly did not find pallasii pallasii populations in this area, although the style in the hybrid plants would probably fit pallasii very well. Cancellatus cancellatus seems to be a plant of open mountainous terrain, while kotschyanus was found more often in open coniferous woodland and in deciduous oak scrub.

We found cancellatus ssp. pamphylicus later on in W Icel province.

I'm also attaching a picture of kotschyanus ssp. kotschyanus from Finkdikpinar, style and anthers seem to be quite similar to the 'hybrids'.

Seeing the corm (typical cancellatus) I would more tend to new species than to hybrid. If hybrid between pallasii and kotschyanus would be possible (under greeat question marks) as they are placed not very far in new phylogenetic tree, then cancellatus is situated very far. Cancellatus is closer to biflorus than to kotschyanus. (see Petersen @ al.. Phylogeny of Crocus, Taxon 57: 2  - once more great thanks to Ian Young for information of article). Cancellatus is closer to biflorus than to kotschyanus. Greetings!!!
Janis