Description
This species has ivory-white flowers with an orange and yellow centre with petals that are uniquely patterned with spickles and dots of deep purple brown, silver to ash- or even charcoal-grey on the exterior. Inside the ivory contrasts with bright golden-yellow anthers. In some plants the gold can be seen through the petals, from the outside of the flower. In some plants of the species, there is a golden ring in the throat also.
This Asian species is unique in its colouring and needs to be seen to be appreciated fully. It is usually seen in its central Asian incarnations typically from Chimghan and Tashkent. This new stock hails from a nursery in Tacheng in northern Xinjiang, in western China. As such it represents Crocus alatavicus from its very northeastermost occurrences and indeed it is the only Crocus that occurs naturally in China.
It is early days yet for us to know much about the range of variability (if any) of this Chinese source material though amongst the few that we have flowered so far, we have seen some with very nice ivory infusions on the edges of the outside of the three outer petals, others display starry flowers and a few have violet, rather than brown-purple markings on the exterior. So far in this Tacheng stock, almost all of the flowers have had white throats, few have any trace of yellow and this seems to co-relate with the plants having purple exteriors rather than grey ones..
We have an excellent, nursery-cultivated stock.
New to our listing in October 2017.
