Biarum

[David Stephens]

David,
Welcome to the forum, glad we have another Biarumist here.
That is a fantastic selection!!! Can you tell where the Sp. nova is originated to?

Hello Oron. The sp. nova was collected in 1987 by Mike Salmon on Crete. It was sent to Peter Boyce who verified it as a new taxon but it has never been published. It needs more field work to come to any firm conclusions. I keep promising myself a trip one day. David

[David Stephens]

Thought it was time I shared some of my Biarums.
Here are photo's of some of the more interesting one's that have flowered so far this season.

David - a belated welcome to the forum.
Very interesting Biarums, though not quite as attractive as a crocus.

Gerry, good to hear from you. The Crocus took such a hammering in the February freeze that there is not much flower to show this autumn, so I thought I'd share the Biarums instead.

[Janis Ruksans]

The rare Biarum auraniticum, known only from the Golan Heights [Syrian territory] and the Hauran region in SW Syria.
Each flower has its own color from Green -yellow to rusty, hard to find two similar flowers.
These photos are from this morning.

Phantastic beauty. Pity, didn't see when visited you - still between our (my and Guna's) best memories.
Janis

[Oron Peri]

Thank's Janis.

David
So is it the same species Kurt V. showed me with leaves at flowering time?

[David Stephens]

Oron, yes. I was just discussing this with Kurt. My plant had no leaves at flowering time but his and Mike's did.
David

[David Stephens]

And now for some tenuifolium's.
I agree with Tony Willis that trying to assign a specific epithet to tenuifolium s.l. based on the published morphological criteria is not always (not often) possible. The plants just don't conform. I work on the following principle:
If the plant has staminodes as well as pistillodes it is tenuifolium s.l. (although the staminodes are sometimes vestigial nearly to the point of absence)
If the plant is from Italy or the Balkans is is ssp. tenuifolium unless it has a green top to the spathe when it is ssp. abbreviatum.
If the plant is from the Iberian peninsula or North Africa it is ssp. arundanum.
If the plant is from Crete it is ssp. idomenaeum.
If the plant is from Turkey and its surrounding islands it is ssp. zelebori.
Biarum tenuifolium ssp. galiani is missing from the list because the differentiators described by Talavera are just too tenuous.

Great weight is given to the morphology of staminodes and pistillodes; whether they are whorled, hooked, branched, peg like et al.
I have seen many plants including in the type sites that just don't have the required characteristics; most arundanum's and galiani's I have seen do not have branched staminodes or pistillodes; I have many ssp. tenuifolium with short fat appendices rather than the long slender ones they are meant to possess. I have ssp. zelebori with spathes 5 - 8 cm long rather than bulky inflorescences of 20 - 40 cm.
I am very pleased that earlier in this thread Peter Boyce stated that the least convincing part of his monograph were the tenuifolium's.
Anyway here are photo's of a few of the tenuifoliums in my collection, check out the variation, and the arundanum with a double spathe.

[Tony Willis]

David

some fine looking plants.

I saw a few Biarum pyrami in flower near Akseki yesterday. It is very dry and they were quite stunted,still nice to see

[BULBISSIME]

Here are 2 Biarum ( I think it's the same species ) flowering now. They come from North Syria, and could be B. aleppicum because it doesn't look like B. bovei which also grows in this area.
Any advice welcome 

[David Stephens]

Here are 2 Biarum ( I think it's the same species ) flowering now. They come from North Syria, and could be B. aleppicum because it doesn't look like B. bovei which also grows in this area.
Any advice welcome 

Always difficult to tell from photographs, with Biarum it is necessary to examine a range of morphological features, some of which can only be seen clearly if you dissect the plant!!
However, they both look like they could be B. aleppicum. The narrow spathe tubes and what appears to be little to no connation of the tubes is indicative of that taxa.
David

[BULBISSIME]

Thank's David !
It also could be B. carduchorum, but I'll dissect the plant today and will post the pictures.

[David Stephens]

Thank's David !
It also could be B. carduchorum, but I'll dissect the plant today and will post the pictures.

Fred
I thought about carduchorum; it will depend upon the degree of connation of the spathe tube.
B. aleppicum should have a fully open tube i.e. no connation whereas carduchorum should have 75% of the tube closed.
David

[BULBISSIME]

Well David, according to P. BOYCE's monograph, seems to be B. aleppicum :-)

[David Stephens]

Well David, according to P. BOYCE's monograph, seems to be B. aleppicum :-)

Fred
I think it is a close race between aleppicum and carduchorum, I'm still slightly worried by the degree of spathe tube connation.
As Boyce say's, the morphological difference between these two taxa are somewhat minor.
Should be able to be definitive when the leaves arrive; aleppicum has 10 - 35 leaves of 3 - 10 mm width, whereas carduchorum has 3 - 5 leaves of 25 - 50 mm width.
Of course, all these morphological indicators are variable, and Biarum are more variable than most!!
Nice plants.
David

[BULBISSIME]

I've to check as I may be have some pictures of leaves in the nature...
but you're right, not easy to make real difference....

[David Stephens]

Biarum tenuifolium with an identity crisis.
Think their dad's surname was Davis.