Colchicum ID

[Ray]

Could someone ID these Colchicum's for me thanks Ray

[Paul T]

Ray,

First one is almost certainly 'The Giant', which is sold here in Aus as Colchicum byzantinum but is a much larger variant.  Multiplies very well, flowers prolifically etc.  The second one I will have to go through my pics to try to identify.

[Ray]

Hi Paul,The giant rings a bell,but i also have byzantinium,is flowering size the only difference.bye Ray

[Paul T]

Ray,

Size and a bit of difference to the shape.  Unforunately most of what is sold as byzantinum in Aus is 'The Giant'.  The species itself if much more goblet shaped and far more elegant than TG, although I have rarely actually seen the true byzantinum in person and have never flowered it myself.

[Lesley Cox]

Look in Colchicums 2009 (I think). Maggi says the one whose ID I wanted is byzantinum.

[Otto Fauser]

Paul , as far as I know :C. 'The Giant' has always been sold here as such, it is the largest flowered Colch. I know , and clumps up fast . C .byzantinum is a smaller flower with narrower segments ,I can send you a bulb of the rarer byzantinum album , if you are interested , also a handful of Scilla bithynica.

   Ray  , your smaller Colch. looks like corsicum , it selfsows abundantly in my garden,
          Otto.

[Ray]

Hi Otto,Colchicum corsicum self seeds,I wish. thanks for the ID bye Ray

[Paul T]

Otto,

Every Colchicum byzantinum that I have ever brought commercially has been 'The Giant', but never named as such.  I had grown it for years before I ever found out it was not the actual species it was labelled as, but rather a "giant" cultivar.

[arillady]

Just the right subject heading I needed!
This is an old colchicum I have grown for years. Always wondered what it is.

[arillady]

By the way the bees were bedding down for the night. They must do the pollinating like native bees in the oncocyclus habitat in Israel do too. Find a bed for the night where they get the morning sun early - the early bee gets the pollen

[Paul T]

So they actually sleep in the flower, Pat?  Cool!!   The white stripe in the centre reminds me of Colchicum atropurpureum, but I think it looks like the flowers are a bit larger than that species?

[arillady]

I know the native bees visit a few onco flowers in their habitat before they find the one that they want to sleep in -there was a good paper written on it that appeared in an ASI Yearbook a couple of years back. Not sure if the bees in the colchicums were staying the night but they seemed to be settled and when poked were not interested in leaving their beds and the light was disappearing fast that evening so I wouldn't be surprised.

[fermi de Sousa]

Otto asked me to post this pic for him to try to get an ID.
It was grown from JJA Seed 2002 as Colchicum troodii (= C. decaisnei) collected Hatay, Turkey.

But he feels it isn't C. decaisnei and wonders if it might be C. cilicicum becuse of the pale line down the middle of the tepals?
cheers
fermi on behalf of Otto.

[Lesley Cox]

Just the right subject heading I needed!
This is an old colchicum I have grown for years. Always wondered what it is.

Pat this looks like what I too was wondering about and Maggi says is probably Colchicum byzantinum, an ancient hybrid which has been around for hundreds of years. Mark in Ireland reckoned it could be C. tenorii but I doubt if mine is as it came from the remains of a garden at least 130 years old. Mine is lankier than yours but is in 3/4 shade and pushing though a mat of violets.

[Maggi Young]

Just the right subject heading I needed!
This is an old colchicum I have grown for years. Always wondered what it is.

Pat this looks like what I too was wondering about and Maggi says is probably Colchicum byzantinum, an ancient hybrid which has been around for hundreds of years. Mark in Ireland reckoned it could be C. tenorii but I doubt if mine is as it came from the remains of a garden at least 130 years old. Mine is lankier than yours but is in 3/4 shade and pushing though a mat of violets.

 They both look a lot like Otto's perhaps C. cilicicum, though, don't they?