Peloponnese in autumn 2010

[Thomas Huber]

Hello folks.

This year the Hubi's did their family holiday in autumn and Southern Peloponnese was the location we choose for relaxing, beaching, hiking and hunting.
The weather there was really great, sunshine and around 30°C - until we arrived  
In the first days we had a lot of rain but the temperatures were still OK and even bathing in the mediterranean sea was possible, but unfortunately the crocus didn't start their growth so far   So we were happy with these:

26 - Celine and a nice clump of dark Cyclamen graecum
27,28,29 - natural drifts of Cyclamen graecum
24,25 - Scilla autumnalis
31 - a rainbow in the Taygetos mountains
30 - Colchicum probably macrophyllum growing on 900m in the Southern Taygetos mountains.
46 - a very unpleasant find in Gythion, where they have a big rubbish problem since many years, but we were told
       the solution is not far away - finally  

[Thomas Huber]

04 - A good, dark clump of Colchicum peloponnesiacum growing in 200m on the Northern Mani
06 - Allium callimischon - didn't know about autumn flowering Alliums so far  
07 - Urginea maritima
02 - Each morning we went collecting mussels on the beach in front of our hotel
41 - Shipwreck of the 'Dimitrios' near Gythion, must be there for more than 20 years now
48,57,74 - The famous ruins of Mystras
59 - Campanula versicolor (thanks DaveM for ID) growing in a very small crevice in Mystras
84 - a hike in the backcountry of Mystras was cancelled by another rainfall  

[Thomas Huber]

Still no crocus found after 3 days, but nevertheless we were all (!) happy with the landscape, the people and the sea.

32 - despite the wet weather we saw this forest fire on the Mani from our beach for 3 days
33,40 - some Greek originals 
13 - weather still dull, and my last hope for Crocus was Mount Parnon....
15,16,17 - and here they are  my first Greek crocus in the wild: Crocus hadriaticus
21 - my first thought was this is Crocus boryi, but it was too small and the corm said 'this is clearly LAEVIGATUS' - very early!!
23 - Colchicum bivonae
26 - Sternbergia sicula

[christian pfalz]

hi hubi,
nice pics, but the weather was not so amused  i hope you found a lot of crocus. my friends are actualy in peleponnes ....bring me a few crocus 

cheers
chris

[krisderaeymaeker]

Very nice Thomas ! Always good to see those treasures in the wild! Please go on... 

[Gerdk]

Great pics and a lot of interesting plants, especially the Cyclamen!
Thanks Thomas!

Gerd

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks Chris, Kris and Gerd.

My search for Crocus went on and we've been very successful this day:

30 - a good photo to show how variable Crocus hadriaticus is in this area
32-35 - in the higher areas Cyclamen graecum was replaced by C. hederifolium, but never in that great quantity that we've seen of graecum in the lower parts.
No leaves were visible and so I coudn't judge if they are var. confusum
39-43 - and some more C. hadriaticus variants. Seeing these variable flowers makes me forget the classification from Brian Mathew's Crocus update 2001, where he names the yellow throated plants ssp hadriaticus, the blue ones without yellow throat ssp parnonicus and the white ones without yellow throat ssp parnassicus.
           All these forms were mixed together where I found them and should be regarded as just one very variable ssp hadriaticus.
47 - It took some time before this turtle (Testudo graeca - thanks Chris!) passed the street....  

[Thomas Huber]

The last photos from Mt. Parnon:

52 - goats were a common sight apart from the main street
54 - one last hadriaticus, but one of the best - should be called var, mathewii  
57 - a lonely Cyclamen graecum above 1000m, also showing the significant reduce of flowers compared with the lowland forms
05 - the next day took us to the caves of Pyrgos Dirou, 1200m gliding with a boat through this wonderful scenery..

37,38 - on the way back to Mavrouvoni I noticed some white/blue spots at the roadside and stopped. We found these wonderful bicoloured Crocus niveus and wondered what on Earth has animated them to flower in this low area, just 200m above sea level, while all the other Crocus are only flowering above 800 m  

49 - not far away we found another dark coloured Cyclamen graecum

02 - Next day on the way to the higher Taygetos mountains we often saw areas which were obviously burned down in the last years. The black coated tree skeletons and the fresh plants make a good sight together with the Cyclamen graecum.

03,04 - and again   Cyclamen graecum - growing everywhere beneath the streets and in the fields...

[Gerry Webster]

Thanks Chris, Kris and Gerd.

My search for Crocus went on and we've been very successful this day:

30 - a good photo to show how variable Crocus hadriaticus is in this area
32-35 - in the higher areas Cyclamen graecum was replaced by C. hederifolium, but never in that great quantity
               that we've seen of graecum in the lower parts. No leaves were visible and so I coudn't judge if they are var. confusum
39-43 - and some more C. hadriaticus variants. Seeing these variable flowers makes me forget the classification from
           Brian Mathew's Crocus update 2001, where he names the yellow throated plants ssp hadriaticus, the blue ones
           without yellow throat ssp parnonicus and the white ones without yellow throat ssp parnassicus.
           All these forms were mixed together where I found them and should be regarded as just one very variable ssp hadriaticus.
47 - It took some time before this turtle passed the street.... 

A very interesting report Thomas. However, I think you have mis-remembered Brian Mathew. In his 2001 paper he draws much the same conclusion as you; he rejects infraspecific taxa & regards  C. hadriaticus as  one variable taxon.

[Thomas Huber]

  Of course you're right, Gerry. Have just read it again and now have to change my statement to:
"I completely agree with Brian Mathew in his Crocus update from 2001"  

Further North in the higher Taygetos mountains I found only two locations with bulbs - somewhat disappointing from botanical view, but the views of the landscape were magnificent and always worth the effort.

06-08 - Crocus boryi, the first bulbous location, but this one was very good.
09 - again we found large areas where forest fires have destroyed the whole landscape. This time it seems that it was only some weeks/months ago as no new growth of vegetation could be seen.
10-16 - Galanthus reginae-olgae, the second bulbous location,  was in full flower beside a small stream. I reminded, that this plant prefers growing as single plant, but here I found a lot of vegetatively increased clumps.
Not much variation in the green markings, but in size they were from 10cm up to even more than 30cm! The whole habitat was not more than 10-12m in diameter but the quantity must have been more than 1000 plants    Sorry, I didn't count them  

[Armin]

Thomas,
thank you for your interesting holiday trip report.
I make it short: I like the image of the bicolored C. niveus and the C. hadriaticus 'var. mathewii'.
Did you find any variation on C. boryi?

[Thomas Huber]

My pleasure Armin. Thanks for your short comments 

Yes, I found some boryi with stripes, but unfortunately didn't make a photo due to bad light level.
But most of them were pure white as we know them from cultivation.

[DaveM]

Thomas - thanks for these lovely pics; pleased that you eventually found some crocus flowering.

A couple of suggestions for the incomplete names.
the campanula is C. versicolor
The colchicum from Taygetos with the purple anthers is C. variegatum

[krisderaeymaeker]

Thomas - thanks for these lovely pics; pleased that you eventually found some crocus flowering.
A couple of suggestions for the incomplete names.
the campanula is C. versicolor
The colchicum from Taygetos with the purple anthers is C. variegatum

Again very interesting pictures Thomas. Dave ,I tought that Colchicum variegatum is not growing in the Peleponnesus?
Could it be Colchicum sfikasianum? This is an endemic of this place.

[tonyg]

30 - a good photo to show how variable Crocus hadriaticus is in this area
39-43 - and some more C. hadriaticus variants. Seeing these variable flowers makes me forget the classification from
           Brian Mathew's Crocus update 2001, where he names the yellow throated plants ssp hadriaticus, the blue ones
           without yellow throat ssp parnonicus and the white ones without yellow throat ssp parnassicus.
           All these forms were mixed together where I found them and should be regarded as just one very variable species.

Glad you found them in the end!  I was worried for you (re Crocus) as others were reporting late growth this year.
The reports of Crocus hadriaticus are very interesting.  I have always wondered if these 'different' forms grew in mixed populations - I think your conclusions are correct!