SPECIES DESCRIPTION
COLCHICUM MACROPHYLLUM        

Family:- COLCHICACEAE                      

Common Name:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Colchicum (Gr) After Colchis, a Black sea port. A Name used by the
Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.
                  Macrophyllum (Gr) With large leaves.

General description:- Large, autumn flowering, Bulb large.

Stock:-
1) Corm, 5-6 x 4-5 cm; tunic dark brown, coriaceous, with a long neck.

Leaves:-
1) Spring leaves, 3-4, up to 35 cm x 140 mm, developing after anthesis strongly  
    plicate, ovate to elliptic-ovate, acute or acuminate, glabrous.

Flowers:-
1) Large, autumn flowering 1-4, infundibuliform.
2) Perianth-segments, up to 45 x 22 mm, tessellated, lilac-purple, often paler or 
    white at the base, oblong-elliptical, acute.
3) Filaments, up to 20 mm.
4) Anthers, 8-10 mm, purple; pollen green.
5) Styles, shortly curved at the apex.
6) Stigmas, decurrent.
  
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, ovoid, up to 5cm.

Key features:-
1) Flowers ± tessellated.
2) Pollen green.
3) Leaves up to 35 cm x 140 mm, strongly plicate, ovate to elliptic-ovate.

Habitat:- Grassy slopes, olive groves in middle and lower montane zone.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete, E. Aegean & SW. Turkey. Limited distribution on
Crete, not common.

Flowering time:- Sept-Nov.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

Status:-
Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981