SPECIES DESCRIPTION
CYCLAMEN CONFUSUM
Family and Genus:- See- PRIMULACEAE
Common Names:- Ivy-leaved Cyclamen
Homotypic Synonyms:- C. neapolitanum, C. hederifolium subsp. confusum
Meaning:- Cyclemen (Gr) Circle a name used by the Greek philosopher
Theophrastus for the coiled fruiting stalk.
Confusum (L) Easily mistaken for another species, disordered.
Tuber:-
1) Depressed-globose, up to 10(-25) cm, Æ, corky, with roots both from the sides
and base.
Leaves:-
1) Usually developing at the same time as the flowers.
2) Blade, 4-10 cm, ± ovate with a cordate base and a few shallow, angular lobes,
dark green, usually greyish- or silvery-marbled in very variable patterns.
3) Pedicels, slender, generally 10-20 cm.
Flower:-
1) Corolla, pink to purplish-pink, with dark purple bifurcate blotches at the throat.
a) lobes, auriculate at the base, 15-20 mm, oblong-obovate, often somewhat
twisted.
2) Style, scarcely exserted
Fruit:-
1) Fruiting pedicel, coiling from the apex.
2) Capsule, ripening in the following summer.
Key features:-
1) Leaves, often distinctly angled or lobed.
2) Corolla-lobes, auriculate at the base.
3) Fruiting pedicel, coiling from the apex
4) Mouth of the corolla comparatively narrow.
Considering the rather vague and quantitative differences, C. confusum is probably
better regarded as a geographical race of C. hederifolium. 1)
1) Arrne Strid, Atlas of the Aegean Flora, Book 1 page 483
Habitat:- Damp scrub and open woodland, generally in semi-shade 0-1300 m
Distribution:- Almost throughout Greece, much of the Pindos and the far NE -
Mediterranean region from S France to w & SW Anatolia. On Crete currently known
only from the west, in two valleys and is most abundant from Topolia southwards.
Flowering time:- Aug-Nov
Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis
