COLCHICUM CUPANII

Family:- COLCHICACEAE

Common Name:- None

Synonyms:- Colchicum bertolonii var. angustifolium, Colchicum bertolonii

var. cupanii, Colchicum montanum var. cupanii.

Meaning:- Colchicum (Gr) After Colchis, a Black sea port. A Name used by the

Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.

Cupanii Meaning unknown.

General description:- Bulbous plants with pink or white flowers.

Corm:-

1) 1-2 x 1-1·5 cm, ovoid, tunic dark brown, coriaceous, with a short neck.

Leaves:-

1) 2(-3), up to 8(-10) cm at anthesis, up to 15 cm x 10-18 mm (rarely only

7 cm x 2-3 mm) at maturity, linear to linear-lanceolate, obtuse to acute,

glabrous, rarely ciliate at the base.

Flowers:-

1) 1-5(-12).

2) Perianth-segments, up to 25 x 3-5 mm, purplish-pink, narrowly elliptical-obtuse

to acute.

3) Filaments, up to 12 mm.

4) Anthers, 2-3 mm purplish-black; pollen yellow.

5) Styles, straight.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule c. 15 mm, oblong.

Key features:-

1) Leaves 2 or 3, linear-lanceolate, at least 7 mm wide on well-developed plants.

usually glabrous, rarely sparsely ciliate at the base.

Habitat:- Soil pockets with terra rossa on rocky hillslopes with dry open shrubby

vegetation and scrub, sometimes in olive groves, usually over limestone. 0-700(-

1400) m.

Distribution:- S E France eastwards to Greece. Rare on Crete known only from the

area between Limenas Hersonisou and Agios Nikolaos, near Agia Marina on the

western outskirts of Iraklio.

Flowering time:- Late Sept to early Dec.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton