Crocus November 2007

[Maggi Young]

a wondrous tale indeed, Zeph... we will all keep your secret!

[SueG]

Sorry Lesley, should have put the reference in John Betjeman was a 20th century poet (his poetry is the equivalent of a Lowry painting, I sometimes think, and you either like the style or don't) and he writes pasionately against modernisation and one of his poems (written in the late 30s) began something like
Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, death!

[mark smyth]

out of season Crocus continue in the garden. Very well camoflaged against the grit is alatavicus. The Christmas flowering Galanthus 'Castlegar' is out now also

[Lesley Cox]

Betjeman was never among my own favourite poets I admit, though I do like that small effort.

[Martin Baxendale]

The Christmas flowering Galanthus 'Castlegar' is out now also

With climate change, it looks like all the snowdrops are going to end up Christmas-flowering here!

[Kees Jan]

I need 'professional help'  . Can anyone identify this Crocus for me please? It's photographed NE of Dalaman in light woodland amongst C. cancellatus ssp. mazziaricus. Possibly a pallasii form??

[DaveM]

I don't think this is pallasii, the style of which should be equal to or less than half the perianth length. The long style perhaps suggests mathewi which could be in this area...... or it could be a hybrid...
No doubt Tony will help out.....

[Kees Jan]

It certainly did not look like the mathewii that I found in the wild in SW Turkey, certainly no violet throat, also a very different habitat (relatively low altitude, Colchicum variegatum was present at this site as well, in apparently dryer conditions). Apart from the style it looke very similar to the Cr. cancellatus ssp. mazziaricus amongst which it was found. I found just 1 specimen of this saffron crocus in among many cancellatus mazziaricus. I don't know if saffron crocusses hybridise with cancellatus...

[DaveM]

But mathewi doesn't always have a violet throat - see the discussion in a crocus thread this time last year. But I take your point about the low altitude, information about which you didn't give in your original post. Also, some of the mathewi I saw last year were in extremely dry areas.

[tonyg]

It looks like a C cancellatus from the flower shape.  I have some pale C mathewii without the violet throat and this one looks different.  I don't like naming crocus from the flower alone (although I go along with Dave re: C pallasii - the style of C pallasii is distinctive, short and often curved.)   The corm tunic would tell us if it is cancellatus or saffron group but this info is harder to obtain in the wild!

[Kees Jan]

Interesting to hear that pallasii is unlikely. I don't think there are many other candidates since there were only three style branches, and the colour of the style seems to be very typical of the saffron crocus group and certainly very distinct from the cancellatus ssp. mazziaricus at this location. Could it possibly be cancellatus ssp. mazziaricus x pallasii ssp. pallasii? Is the multi-branched style a stable feature in cancellatus?

I'm attaching pictures of cancellatus ssp. mazziaricus mazziaricus, same site

[Anthony Darby]

I'm still in Slough. You may have a point? The people of Buckinghamshire quite obviously didn't like Slough as they had it moved to Berkshire! Can't get my head round that. Mind you, there is a sign on the road north 2 miles out of Dunblane saying 'Welcome to Perthshire'. When they pass that sign they have been driving through Perthshire for 3 miles as it starts a mile the other side of Dunblane!

Nice crocus btw

[Kees Jan]

Tony, Dave,

I modified my earlier posting of the 'saffron' crocus and now have uploaded a picture with the flower throat and anthers visible. I hope this makes identification possible.

I don't believe it's mathewii because the tepals are pale violet rather than white, the throat isn't coloured and the low altitude/ unlikely habitat. Possibly the location isn't quite in the mathewii area either: it's somewhere between Dalaman – Gölhisar.

Here is a picture of the habitat of both crocusses, not as open as usual for most of the species, but light woodland...

[dominique]

Thank you all have help me to put pics on the forum. I can now made it myself !!! enormous progress for me !!!

[dominique]

other Crocuses of late season