Click Here To Visit The SRGC Main Site
Thanks Armin, Janis and Ibrahim. I will check the corm when the plant is dormant. I am also confused by the white anthers. I thought maybe it could be C.adanensis as the catalogue description said "white, sometimes yellow, throat". The only as yet unaccounted for C.biflorus forms I have had are C.aff isauricus (found) or C.astrospermus. Alternatively, I did have some seedlings from wild collected seed I bought in 2005, which had been collected at Soganli Pass. Though I thought these had all been eaten by voles.
Janis, thanks for your help. I know it cannot be self sown as this part of the garden is only 3years old this summer and the Crocus have only been planted here for 2 years. If it is from seed it can only be from seed I bought at an AGS show in Leeds, from someone who had collected from unnamed species in the wild. The only information I have is Soganli Pass NE Turkey. There were some species from Iran- but I think these were identified as autumn flowering species. Apart from that my only other clues for my 'lost' biflorus types are the ones Norman Stevens listed as biflorus astrospermus and biflorus aff. astrospermus- which I once had. The collection sites for these are listed as Tuzlabeli Gec and Belpinar Gec respectively.
Simon, I also agree these are subsp. biflorus. What was interesting for me, they were very small like a danfordiae size and second thing all the anthers have black lobes! We have this subsipecies also in European part of Istanbul but there they were nearly all strongly striped and rarely speckled and they were much more bigger then these but reason maybe soil conditions. we have this subspecies In Çanakkale province to but I have no experience there on this plant.
A C.danfordiae and C.biflorus missing link