Colchicum questions
Jane McGary (Tue, 31 May 2005 07:53:37 PDT)

On the outstanding colchicum questions, my sources all list C. sibthorpii
as an invalid synonym of C. bivonae, and the photo on the wiki could be C.
bivonae, which is, however, qutie variable at least as described in the
older literature; it may now be split up some.

I looked at the website Mary Sue mentioned showing lots of photos of C.
cupanii on Malta. I'm growing two plants under this name, one acquired from
England as a bulb and one grown from seed from a Czech list. The seed-grown
one looks fairly typical, and the one acquired as a builb has white
flowers. The latter's color led me to suspect it was misnamed, but its
pollen is yellow, and all the other miniature, fall-flowering,
white-flowered colchicums I can find out about have dark anthers (e.g., C.
hungaricum, which I think I have with a good identification). The leaves of
the white one are correct for C. cupanii, so perhaps it's just a white
form. I hope to offer it on this summer's bulb list, but I'll include my
doubts about identification. It is a very good grower in the bulb frame but
has not survived in the open rock garden.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA