Biarum

[Alex]

Just for fun - a couple of Biarum from today. One is B. ditschianum, which i must say is the most incredibly short-lived flower. The other - well, I'm not sure, but it was sold to me by a reputable Wrexham-based nurseryman as B.ditschianum and my assertion that it could be otherwise was greeted with total disbelief...

Alex

[Lesley Cox]

They don't appear to be the same. do they. Perhaps that the first was very short-lived suggests that it has been pollinated and fertilized?

[Alex]

Ooh, I do hope so! Hasn't happened in 5 years, though, despite the presence of numerous flies buzzing around the open flower.

Cheers,

Alex

[Tony Willis]

Alex I am surprised to see ditchsianum in flower now,I understood it was a spring flowering one.

Here is the first of mine in flower which comes from only a short distance from yours in Turkey.I have not identified it yet

Biarum sp. Turkey Dacta

[Alex]

Very nice, probably a little different to the one I showed?

Ditschianum flowers from July (which is usual) as late as September for me, sometimes almost as the new leaves come up.

Alex

[Tony Willis]

Another one from Turkey.I have tentatively decided that this and the previous one are Biarum tenuifolium ssp zeleborii

[Sinchets]

Wow- so early Tony- do they always flower now? Ours are still resting just now.

[Tony Willis]

These Turkish ones seem to have popped into flower and also have leaves starting to show.I think this is early but it is the first time I have had these collections in flower so I have no records. Most of my others still seem dormant.

[Tony Willis]

another Biarum tenuifolium this time from Grazelema in Spain.

I think it is ssp arundanum.

[Tony Willis]

A note on the difficulties of identifying these Biarum tenuifolium.

I thought I would cut open the flowers of one from Kemer in Turkey and one from Grazelema in Spain both shown earlier.

I would estimate the distance apart to be at least 1000 miles

Clearly I cannot at this stage look at the leaves but the key starts based up on whether the staminoides are hooked or not.

Looking at the one from Turkey it has both hooked(on the right in the picture) and straight staminoides so that is an immediate problem.

The one from Spain has straight staminoides and this means go to 5 in the key which covers two eastern Mediterranean ssp and so cannot be either of these.
The colour of the tube particularly in arum  is usually a diagnostic feature which in the case of the Spanish plant is purple but this is not mentioned in the key

I am happy to be corrected but it seems the plants have once again not read the key.

[Sinchets]

Your work may not have helped you with identification, Tony, but it is useful in that it shows that too much id work is done on 'type' populations from single locations,on plants that are more variable than books 'allow' for. It is good that you posted pics with collection details, as this is now floating around the internet and may help other people.

[Oron Peri]

Great plants

Tony, i agree with you that they all are B. tenuifolium, also Alex's one.
You have done a great job by showing  the two flowers for comparison.

There is a difference in leaf forms between the tenuifolium subspecies that we cant compare at the moment, but there is a small difference you can notice: the lower staminodes in ssp. arundanum tend to divide into branches, in your flowers there are only a few like that but still a difference, in tenuifloium ssp. zelebori they don't divide.

[Sinchets]

Interesting, Oron. So one subspecies is from the West Med and one from the East and this is the difference inside the flowers. Purely out of  a desire to know- I wonder what happens to Biarum tenuifolium in the middle? Ideas for your or my next holiday, Tony. I'll try to get to W.Greece if you can cover S.Italy. 

[Oron Peri]

Simon

I agree with you to a certain point..
There are more small differences between Biarum, down here we have 5 species of which 3 are quite similar, and so the color of the inner lower part of the flower and its measures,make also the difference.

B. tenuifolium ssp. arundanum has this multi branched staminoides which are a result of thousands years of evolution and probably has to do with a specific pollinator, it might be that if you grow this species in another part of the world, pollinators will not be able to do their work properly.
On another point of view if one day this species will extinct in the wild in Spain it would be just this ssp. that we would like to return to its native place and certainly not another ssp. from Turkey or elsewhere.
And so the differences are very small and might seem un important for horticulture, but have much importance from a scientific point of view.

[Tony Willis]

Oron glad you liked them.

Simon I have some from Greece which have not flowered yet so if and when they do I will post pictures.