Colchicum byzantinum and friends
Russell Stafford, Odyssey Bulbs (Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:18:31 PDT)
Another baffling entity that appears to be allied with C. autumnale
or C. byzantinum is C. tenorii, which has starry flowers with
wide-flaring narrow segments and crimson-tipped styles. It blooms
later than C. byzantinum, opening its flowers at about the same time
as C. cilicicum and C. autumnale 'Album'. In my last post I confused
the bloom time of 'Pink Star'/C. laetum hort. with this plant. 'Pink
Star' does indeed bloom earlier here.
On the other hand, I find C. byzantinum and C. cilicicum to be quite
distinct. Of the two, C. cilicicum blooms considerably later, is
usually darker in flower, and has much longer styles. Its habit is
also "tighter". Finally, the corms are very different -- C.
cilicicum has broadly conical corms, whereas those of C. byzantinum
are flattened spheres.
As Jane notes, corms of different provenance can vary widely in their
characteristics. For example, my C. bivonae corms are cone-shaped,
like those illustrated in Phillips & Rix.
Russell
At 02:49 PM 10/4/2009, you wrote:
Jane McGary wrote:
The plant I have as C. laetum flowers just a little before C.
byzantinum, but at the same time as "C. byzantinum album hort," aka
C. 'Innocence'. The "C. laetum" hort. here has hooked crimson stigmas
as Russell mentions.
I don't think corm size is very diagnostic in the large colchicums,
because it varies greatly depending on cultural conditions. Corm
shape is helpful in identifying some of them, though, e.g. C.
bivonae, which has a distinctive shape like a squashed sphere. Even
shape, however, would be affected by how crowded the corms have
become if they haven't been lifted regularly, or if they have become
deeply buried and have elongated.
Jane Mcgary
Russell Stafford
Odyssey Bulbs
PO Box 382
South Lancaster, MA 01561
508-335-8106
http://www.odysseybulbs.com/