COLCHICUM CRETENSE
Common Name:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Colchicum (Gr) After Colchis, a Black sea port. A Name used by the
Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides.
Cretense (L) From Crete, Cretan.
General description:- Bulbous plants with pink or white flowers, with or without
darker-coloured dots on the perianth segments.
Stock:-
1) Corm, up to 2 x 2 cm, subglobose to ovoid; tunic dark brown, membranous to
subcoriaceous, with long neck.
Leaves:-
1) 3-6(-8), up to 1-3(-4) cm after anthesis, up to 14 cm x 1-2(-5) mm at maturity,
filiform to narrowly linear, obtuse to acute, glabrous, margins
sometimes ciliate.
Flowers:-
1) 1-4(5); perianth-segments, 10-20 x 1·5-2(-3) mm, pinkish-lilac to white, linear-
elliptical, obtuse.
2) Filaments, up to 8 mm, glabrous or pubescent at the base.
3) Anthers, 2.5-4.5 mm, purplish-black to grey or pale brown, less often yellow;
pollen yellow.
4) Styles, straight.
5) Stigmas, punctiform.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, c. 3 mm.
Key features:-
1) Tunic, coriaceous to membranous, persistent.
2) Leaves, 3-18, 1-4(-5) mm wide, narrowly linear, with ciliate or glabrous margins.
3) Leaves, 3-6(-8), up to 1-3(-4) cm after anthesis.
4) Anthers, 2.5-4.5 mm.
Habitat:- Rocky and stony slopes and screes, dolines, in short turf or on bare soil.
(900-) 1200-2000(-2300) m. on limestone.
Distribution:- Endemic to the Lefka Ori, Psiloritis and Dikti massifs.
Flowering time:- (Sept-)Oct-Nov, occasionally later.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton