COLCHICUM RECHINGERI

Family:- COLCHICACEAE                       

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Androcymbium rechingeri.

Meaning:- Colchicum (Gr) After Colchis, a Black sea port. A Name used by the
Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.
                  Rechingeri (L) For Karl Rechinger (1867-1952) Austrian botanist.

Corms:-
1) Single or 2-3 one above the other.

Stem:-
1) 2-7 cm. 

Leaves:-
1) 20-150 x 4-15 mm, linear to lanceolate, flat or slightly plicate, glabrous, patent
    sometimes deflexed.

Flower:-
1) Numerous, 1-4, short-pedicellate.
2) Perianth-segments, (including the claw) 20-25 x 2-5 mm. the limb nearly twice
    as long as the claw, acute at the apex.
3) Filaments, 3-5 mm.
4) Anthers, 1-1·5 mm.

Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 6-8 mm, obpyriform, not glandular-punctate except occasionally at the 
    apex, remaining intact.

Key features:-
1) Perianth-segments acute, the limb often scarcely longer than the claw.
2) Fruit obpyriform, remaining intact.

Habitat:- The species grows in coastal phrygana on shallow sandy soil on
calcareous substrate, but not on moving sands. It seems to be strictly adapted to a
very specialized habitat.

Distribution:- Very rare Cretan endemic that occurs on the coasts of northwest
Crete, and also on the island of Elafonisos.

Flowering time:- Dec-Feb

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis                        
      
Status:-
Conservation status (for threatened species): Endangered (E) according
to the Red Data Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece (1995)
Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981,
Bern Convention, EU Dir.1992/43 (Ann.II*/IV).
 
SPECIES DESCRIPTION