a unknown Romulea from Corsica- who know it ?

[Hans J]

In fall 2004 I have visit Corsica and I found there several locations with Acis rosea -from one location I could collect some seeds and I sow in after my return at home .
Some year later I was really surprised to see that in this pot flowers in spring some very small little plants ...never a Acis ( this means I have also collect fruits of Romulea from this place) - on the same place was growing also Scilla autumnalis .
Before two years I have select this Romuleas in a separate pot ...also I could produce in last year some seeds which I have sent a friend .
Know anybody here this plant ?
I can not find in book or in web such a plant which is descriptet from Corsica....
The flowers always very quick over , so only a short window of time to take a pic ....today it was possibly !
Please let me hear any ideas

Thank you in advance
Hans

[Alberto]

Romulea columnae? Romulea rollii?
Ciao
Alberto

[Hans J]

Thank you Alberto ,

I have also found this plants in the web ...but I'm not shure

R.columnae seems to be bigger and blue flowers
R.rollii is also bigger ...maybe I have found a miniature form ?

[TheOnionMan]

Scan through the Flora Italiana site, their Romulea page, at a glance you can see which species are found in Sardinia (which then typically includes adjacent Corsica), narrowing the field of possibilities from the listing of 14 name combinations.
http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/floraspecie.php?genere=Romulea

R. columnae is found in Corsica, in this link showing small pale-flowered forms from Malta:
http://www.maltawildplants.com/IRID/Romulea_columnae.php

I agree with Alberto, the plant might be Romulea columnae subsp. rollii, certainly tiny and pale flowered:
http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=romulea+rollii

While searching, I found the tiny Romulea assumptionis, endemic to the Balearic Islands, scroll to near bottom.  Not your plant, as it is out of range, just thought I'd share a link to this rarely heard of species:
http://mundani-garden.blogspot.com/2011/12/they-worship-sun-god.html

[Hans J]

Thank you Mark ,

I have also found this pages ....maybe you and Alberto are rigth with R.rollii

[ronm]

Some super pictures on the links you have posted mark. Thank you. Interesting to me especially the pic of  Crocus cambedessii chasing the sun!
The Romulea is a beauty also!

[David Nicholson]

While searching, I found the tiny Romulea assumptionis, endemic to the Balearic Islands, scroll to near bottom.  Not your plant, as it is out of range, just thought I'd share a link to this rarely heard of species:.........

According to The Plant List it's synonomous with Romulea columnae ssp columnae.

In "The Bulbous Plants of Europe and their Allies" (Collins-1981) Brian Mathew gives the size of flowers for R. columnae as 1-2cm long. For ssp rolli he gives the leaves as "very long and thread-like up to 30cm long and 0.5mm wide.

[TheOnionMan]

It does look much like R. columnae photos in Flora Italiana site, all show tiny mostly white-flowered plants.
http://luirig.altervista.org/flora/taxa/index1.php?scientific-name=romulea+columnae

[Oron Peri]

Hans,
As suggested already here, it is R. columnae.
This species tends to elongate its leaves in cultivation, like other Romulea species do.
At the moment i have R. columnae in bloom with straight leaves 24cm long, while visiting the original site near Jerusalem 10 days ago,  same plants have arching leaves only 4-7cm long.
By the way this species is distributed from England thorough all the Mediterranean down to the Judea Mountains near Jerusalem.  

[Hans J]

Thank you Oron for your confirmation too !

Hans