Description
A lovely plant, not long in cultivation but already showing promise for ease of cultivation and good increase. Gorgeous violet flowers as early as January under alpine glass or as late as April when grown outside in colder gardens. The violet is offset by a white throat, with prominent yellow anthers and an orange-yellow style.
It has a coarsely reticulated corm tunic but this is short at the neck and lacks the prolonged neck, characteristic of C. atticus. The throat in C. athous is glabrous and this is an important diagnostic feature whilst the colouring of the throat is variable (it is usually white often with a yellow tint at the edge of the white before this in turn yields to the purple of the petals). In C. atticus the throat is pubescent and bright yellow. The two other species which might be considered to be related are C. sublimis and C. nivalis but these both have more finely reticulated tunics and both have yellow throats (pubescent in C. sublimis).
It is a readily-grown species, just as easily grown as its relatives mentioned above. It takes summer moisture and it will also stand some light or transient shade when in leaf. It makes good growth and sets fertile seed also. We still have it in the alpine house in a well-drained, loam-based compost, Janis says that it will grow outside also.
This species was first collected as long ago as 1914, though it was not described until 1994 and subsequently largely ignored or disregarded as a synonym of the closer related C. sublimis or C. atticus. Its true nature as a valid species was gradually revealed due to work by Arne Strid and Janis Ruksans from 2011 onwards. So far this is known only from the Athos peninsula, the easternmost “finger” of Halkidiki , itself a peninsula, where it grows at up to1,600m altitude in open, mixed deciduous/coniferous woodlands over limestone.
Introduced to our lists January 2019
