Description
In the 1970s, several bulbs of an unknown Colchicum were given to her to Professor Naomi Feinbrun, for study. It was diagnosed initially as “Colchicum bowlesianum”.
Karin Persson from Gothenburg, restudied the material and came to the conclusion that it was in fact something new. It was described as a new species, Colchicum feinbruniae, by Karin, in 1992 (Israeli Journal of Plant Science , Online Publication Date: 13 May 1992
It has good-sized, autumnal flowers of a good, rich, purple pink with darker chequering, which can fade gradually into the petal colour in a manner that I have seen, accurately, called ‘blurred tessellations’. The leaves, which are notably blunt, appear after flowering.
It is now known and recognised from a few dozen sites in Israel, Lebanon and SW. Syria. It seems that this species is related to both C. hierosolymitanum and C. polyphyllum but it is separated from both by its tessellated perianth, and purple anthers which are generally larger than its presumed relatives. The chromosome number is 2n = 22. Wild hybrids with hierosolymitanum are also apparently known.
The species is was named in honour of the late, Professor Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan (1900 – 1995), one of the first women professors at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, one of Israel’s greatest botanists and a world specialist of bulbs.
