Description
Colchicum dolichantherum is considered by the original author, to be one of the most floriferous species in the genus and this is exactly right. It makes bunches of flowers, tightly packed together and these erupt in miniature bunches in the autumn, generally in September, though timing is dependant on the cultivator and temperatures and it can begin in August or end in November. This really is a little stunner, making up to 15 flowers per bunch (and two bunches per corm on larger specimens) with each flower sitting on a pale tube. As originally described the flowers vary from almost creamy-white to very pale pink or a rosy-lilac, they are rarely darker and I am not 100% convinced that some deep purple-pink plants in cultivation are actually this species. One notable feature is that the petals vary quite a lot in length, within each individual flower. Differences between the longest and shortest petals are recorded at up to 1.2cm.
The flowers are made in autumn, without the leaves, but when they develop the leaves are quite remarkable which are thought to be the longest in the genus . They are quite narrow, only some 5-10cm wide, but can reach 50cm long and Walter Siehe, who collected what was probably this species (under another name) recorded that the leaves could reach 1 metre long. Even allowing for enthusiastic exaggeration, this is quite something.
Native to southern Turkey and perhaps occurring over the border in northern Syria, in grassy meadows, scrub, maquis, woods and forests at up to 1,500m. It is usually found over limestone.
This species was described by Karin Persson (the KP of the original collection number) in 1999 from material found in 1987 growing in dolines in Karstic limestone, at 1,500m under mixed Cedrus and Abies forest between Akseki and Cevizli, in Turkey. KP.447 is one of the original collections on which the species was based. Incidentally this is sometimes found under the incorrect spelling of dolicantherum.
Introduced to our lists April 2021
