SRGC Guided Tour to Eastern Turkey - May 2012

[DaveM]

More variation:

Draba bruniifolia
Potentilla geranioides
Tulipa armena
Iris reticulata
Iris caucasica
Colchicum szovitsii

[DaveM]

And yet more Fritillaria alburyana

.......including a single white specimen

[tonyg]

Fantastic report, marvellous pictures as always.  In another life I will be there too!

[Armin]

Marvelous, Dave.

Which temperatures did you have on the mountains?

[DaveM]

Thanks Armin and Tony. Temperatures weren't too bad; I didn't have a thermometer but I guess 15 C or so in sunshine above 2100 m; much warmer in the valleys and in Erzincan. Very pleasant walking around most of the time. Distinctly warmer as we went south-west towards Karramanmaras.

The lower areas from Erzincan southward to Malatya is steppe country. Some typical plants were:

Glaucium grandiflorum
Tchihatchewia isatidea
Arnebia densiflora
Globularia trichosantha - though we did also find this also at higher altitudes in alpine tundra.

[DaveM]

A few more from the steppe.

Rindera lanata
Hesperis breviscapa
Stachys lavandulifolia
Iberis attica
Astragalus chistianus

[DaveM]

Out of Erzincan is the limestone massif that is accessed by the Sipikor Pass. A long slog up steep grassy banks studded in places with some fine specimens of Pulsatilla albana led to some limestone cliffs with some large cusshions of Saxifraga kotschyi.

[DaveM]

Some bulbs from the steppe area between Erzincan and Malatya.

Muscari massayanum
Tulipa julia red and yellow forms
Gladiolus atroviolaceus
Orchis punctulata
Muscari azureum - but this only in wet areas on the Sakultutan Pass.

[DaveM]

And my final offering for tonight - the fabulous Iris sari. We saw this in a number of localities, from grassy roadside banks to limestone outcrops. Lovely variation in colours.

[DaveM]

A few more steppe plants

Aristolochia maurorum
Scutellaria orientalis
Eminium rauwolffii
Scutellaria salvifolius

[DaveM]

The small town of Kamaliye is perched above one of the feeder rivers to the immense lake formed by the Keban Dam. The town is like few others I've seen in Turkey with its wooden houses and attracts mostly Turkish holiday makers - so the narrow mountain roads are a nightmare with huge coaches trundling along them. Above the town are the Subatan Mountains, a huge limestone massif.

Iris mesopotamica (=germanica?) in graveyard in Kamaliye

The rocky plateau on the top of the massif was host to tulips and Iris sari and Iris caucasica

[DaveM]

The last of the melting snow banks provided abundant moisture for some bulbs. For a narrow zone of 3 to 5 metres from the edge of the melting snow where this overlies terra rossa, are species like Eranthis hyemalis and Iris reticulata. The lack of chlorophyll in some of the leaves testifies to the early rapid growth of many of these beneath the snow and subsequent exposure within the previous few days.

Just to the flanks of the snow banks in rocky places with abundant Hyancinthus orientalis ssp chionophyllus. This is a glorious plant and there were many tens of thousands.

[DaveM]

The Doga mountains lie a few tens of kilometres to the south-west of Malatya. These are once again limestone mountains and are host to many bonny plants. Just a small selection...

Lamium garganicum ssp. nepetifolium
Anemone blanda, including a solitary double
Corydalis wendleboi

[DaveM]

and some more

Aubrieta canescens studding rock crevices
Fritillaria aurea - those we saw were much more robust than many that we see in cultivation.
Phelypaea coccinea - yes it really is that colour! It is parasitic, typically on Artemisia which can be seen to the left.

[DaveM]

The Kubbe Pass lies to the east of Malatya. Here the substrate is basalt and serpentinite. The hill is studded with abundant Iris peshmeniana, a newly named juno species (Gerhard Pils shows this plant as Iris persica - which it most definitely isn't. We were really lucky to see this as it normally flowers in April - and there were abundant plants in seed, However, one enterprising member of the party headed for the hilltop and just below on the other side were only about five plants  still in flower. So lucky us!!

With the Iris is an interesting Bellevalia, name at present unknown.