Description
This has 4-6 long (15-20 cm), quite narrow (2-3 cm) leaves. In September and October, each shoot carries one or two deep rose-purple chequered and tessellated flowers each about 5 cm long, on long tubes, before the leaves appear.
The flowers are larger than subspecies chalcedonicum and additionally they have yellow (not brown or grey) anthers.
A rare subspecies known only from two mountains in Turkey where it grows at over 1,500 m altitude on soils formed over mica-schist. It has a very unusual chromosome configuration for Colchicum. Named and described in 1994 from plants in cultivation, ours are the progeny of that discovery.
Easy in a well drained soil in cultivation and happy in a sunny spot in the garden with due consideration for its small stature.
