Description
(Crocus elegans, Crocus speciosus elegans)
A lovely, autumnal species with very elegant flowers and a delightful colouring of pale violet, veined with darker lines. The inner three petals are usually a little paler than the out set, showing the veining off to perfection. In the centre sits a divided orange style set around with pale, orange-yellow anthers though these are pale, when the flower first develops which led to the original field description being slightly wrong. The neck and basal rings of the corms tunic are also very fragile and easily detached, hence reports regarding lack of these are in error also.
This should grow perfectly well in the garden in a fertile, well-drained, sunny spot with a dry summer rest, but it is early days for the species in cultivation and it may be best kept under alpine glass until stocks are larger. The spelling of “brachyfilus” is, by the way, the correct one with a “fil” in the middle and not a “phyll” as you might expect from seeing other plants with this specific name
Known, so far, from just a few localities in the Pisidian Taurus of southern Turkey, where it is dais to grow in clearings in Fir, Cedar and Pine forest, over limestone at around 1,750m altitude.
Stock originally from Janis Rukšāns.
Introduced to our lists September 2017.
