Crocus to identify? Post them here....

[Lesley Cox]

Could an expert croconut please identify these two for me? Bear in mind that this is the middle of winter here in New Zealand so these are very early spring or genuinely winter flowering.
The white is quite small, well textured so weather-resistant and flowering with the leaves which have been nibbled as it came through. There is slight greyish shading on the backs of the outer petals and a small area at the tips of those petals, of grey and creamy striping.

The yellow is larger and entirely this colour inside and out, no markings. Leaves are just showing.

[Otto Fauser]

Hello Lesley, I am only guessing as the style of both species is difficult to make out : The white one may be Cr. candidus and the yellow one C. sieheanus , which in my garden is a rather small flower .I am sure Marcus will correct me , in case you imported these two from him . regards Otto.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Otto, yes I'm sure you're right about C. candidus. I did bring a couple of pots of it with me and they were always very early - July rather than in spring and I do remember it as having that shading on the back so I think that one's right and I'll label it right away before planting it out later. I've never had C. sieheanus so far as I know, except one from seed a few years back which I lost before it bloomed. So I'll leave the books open on this one. Come in Marcus please. It could have come as something else. There are too many (about 6 fl size corms) to be the original seedling some to light after all. I have a really beautiful biflorus ssp issauricus out at present, also from Marcus, such clear, strong colour it stands out beautifully.

Hope all is well with you?

[Janis Ruksans]

Bavella isn't strict cultivar. This name is applied for plants collected at Bavella and wild collected stock from Bavella collected there by Jim Archibald has variable stigmas but all have dark flower segments. Of course - most of the stocks from Bavella have white stigmas. Really easiest feature for identification of true C. minimus in garden is very late flowering - here it is the last of all spring blooming crocuses.
Janis

[t00lie]

Currently first flowering in the garden raised from seed is this little beauty.No label .I'm thinking Crocus biflorus ssp isauricus ?.I'd appreciate confirmation or otherwise thanks Dave.

[Thomas Huber]

What a wonderful plant, Dave.
But it will be hard to identify this one - the Turkish 'ex-biflorus' have been devided in so many new species, that I struggle to give an ID... 

[Lesley Cox]

Well if YOU don't know Thomas............?

The 'Bavella' thing is interesting to me because I had it a few years ago now from Marcus in Tasmania and while the outer segments are the very dark purple as expected, (one just visible in the upper right section of pic 1 below) the buff edging is much wider than in the original pictures we saw, of this collection. The inner segments are a very different shade - almost magenta - from my commercial form, which is the usual, feathered form, though HEAVILY feathered as pic 2 below shows, with a clear purple inner. However, this form has thrown a few seedlings of a wonderful dark outer form though the inner colour is the same as the parent. These seedlings appeared BEFORE I had Marcus' 'Bavella' so there's no question of them being mixed accidentally. I'm lifting and separating each as it appears, to make a colony.

[t00lie]

What a wonderful plant, Dave.
But it will be hard to identify this one - the Turkish 'ex-biflorus' have been devided in so many new species, that I struggle to give an ID... 

Thanks Thomas
I'll mark the label as C.biflorus ...........'nice one' 

[Otto Fauser]

Dave  , I grow the same Crocus as you labelled C. biflorus ssp. isauricus  , but I may be wrong and as Hubi says most biflorus subspecies have been renamed as good species .

    I loveyour handsome Narcissus with 10 perianth segments , have not seen anything like it here . When are you coming to Melbourne again ?

[t00lie]

Dave  , I grow the same Crocus as you labelled C. biflorus ssp. isauricus  , but I may be wrong and as Hubi says most biflorus subspecies have been renamed as good species .

    I loveyour handsome Narcissus with 10 perianth segments , have not seen anything like it here . When are you coming to Melbourne again ?

Thanks Otto
The Narcissus has been registered if anyone wants further info on it .Sorry i don't know how to make the link.
Wife and youngest daughter planning a trip together to Melbourne next March .I'm on standby if a June China botanising trip doesn't work out.......

Cheers. 

[Janis Ruksans]

Currently first flowering in the garden raised from seed is this little beauty.No label .I'm thinking Crocus biflorus ssp isauricus ?.I'd appreciate confirmation or otherwise thanks Dave.

Not isauricus, but which one - not easy to tell. I think I published in forum picture of true isauricus this spring.
Janis

[Maggi Young]

Not isauricus, but which one - not easy to tell. I think I published in forum picture of true isauricus this spring.
Janis

   From  http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=12759.msg324930#msg324930

here is Janis' picture

[t00lie]

Not isauricus, but which one - not easy to tell. I think I published in forum picture of true isauricus this spring.
Janis

Thanks Janis and Maggi
Here's a couple more unknowns ......

[ChrisB]

A member of our Northumberland group has asked me to see if anyone here can help ID this crocus purchased as C. zonatus.  When I checked in the Ruksans tome, it is a synonym for C. kotschyanus ssp kotschyanus.  But is this that bulb please?

[Janis Ruksans]

Most likely some of speciosus group, but could be cancellatus, too. Must to see corm.