Description
(insularis)
This is a justifiably popular species with strongly coloured flowers early in March. These are violet inside, with a silvery to buff exterior, feathered and striped with deep aubergine purple. The centre of the flower has contrasting orange-red style branches.
Readily grown in pot, frame or the open garden (in a well-drained, sunny site) but seldom seen these days due to viral infection in many, commercially cultivated stocks.
This is not the virus-infected Dutch stock of commerce. It is raised from Jim Archibald seed, (probably 343.402 but this is not confirmed) which in turn originated from collections made in the Gorges de la Restonica, a mountainous, rocky valley of Corsica at over 1,200m altitude. The species reaches a higher altitude than any other Corsican Crocus (Jim says 2,300m) and is endemic to the mountains of Corsica.
Crocus corsicus