Romulea

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Ina

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Romulea
« on: February 14, 2012, 12:42:58 PM »
This Sunday we had a spell of good weather for a few hours and I decided to take a walk in the woods... I saw this lovely crocus there (well at least I hope it is a crocus...)
I live in the west of Greece and have a small garden. I love flowers but I have few in my garden. I usually take pictures of flowers when I hike. I started making a blog with the flora that I see on my trips.

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Alisdair

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Romulea
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2012, 05:00:51 PM »
Ina, It looks more like Romulea bulbocodium to me - a crocus-like Mediterranean bulb flowering now, and very variable in its colouring, from white with a yellow throat like this to (more commonly in Greece, I think) ones showing at least some purplish blue, either just towards the outer tips of the petals or almost all over. There is a completely yellow-flowered variety, too.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Ina

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Romulea
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2012, 08:32:47 PM »
Thank you Alisdair, probably you are right... the ones I saw in the forest didn't have any blues.
I live in the west of Greece and have a small garden. I love flowers but I have few in my garden. I usually take pictures of flowers when I hike. I started making a blog with the flora that I see on my trips.

ezeiza

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Romulea
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2012, 10:12:34 PM »
It is a small group of species but poorly described. R. bulbocodium can be told apart readily by the large stigma arms protruding well above the anthers, like in the first photo.

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Alisdair

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2012, 11:09:27 AM »
The handful of European romuleas can be tricky, and I'm not sure that they are very well known. The first picture below is I think Romulea linaresii, photographed in spring at about 1,000 metres up in Greece. The second I thought was R. bulbocodium, also in Greece, but as that is described as always having a yellow throat I'm a bit baffled: any suggestions?
Several dozen species grow in the "mediterranean" part of South Africa, and they are quite easy to grow from seed. The third picture shows Romulea eximia which I had planted out in the cultivated part of our Greek garden. It grew very well there, but eventually the "cultivation" (largely a mattock assault on all visible soil just before our visits, by our wonderful tower-of-strength Greek helper) destroyed it. So now the seed-raised South African and other bulbs all get planted out in our lower managed-wilderness part.

Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Ina

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2012, 01:08:38 PM »
Wonderfull pictures!!I think that there will be competition with the crocuses!!
I live in the west of Greece and have a small garden. I love flowers but I have few in my garden. I usually take pictures of flowers when I hike. I started making a blog with the flora that I see on my trips.

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oron peri

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2012, 01:32:11 PM »
The first picture below is I think Romulea linaresii, photographed in spring at about 1,000 metres up in Greece. The second I thought was R. bulbocodium, also in Greece, but as that is described as always having a yellow throat I'm a bit baffled: any suggestions?
Alisdair,
It is definatly R. linaresii [subsp graeca] and  R. bulbocodium. Not all forms have a yellow throat in particularly in the Eastern Mediteranean.
Ina's plant is Romulea bulbucodium var. leichtliniana which is a white form with prominent yellow throat.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2012, 03:59:51 PM by Alisdair »
Garden Designer, Bulb man, Botanical tours guide.
Living and gardening in Tivon, Lower Galilee region, North Israel.
Min temp 5c Max 42c, around 450mm rain.

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Alisdair

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2012, 04:00:39 PM »
Thanks very much for that, Oron - where would we be without your encyclopaedic knowledge?!
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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Romulea diversiformis
« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2012, 04:07:16 PM »
Another South African romulea, flowering today under glass in the UK. The MGS seed distribution has had seed of this species, which enjoys mediterranean conditions and seems happy in clay which may be very wet in winter but dries hard in summer. It is slightly fragrant.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

ezeiza

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2012, 10:16:32 PM »
Exactly so, as this is one of the "aquatic" Romuleas.

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Alisdair

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Romulea obscura
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2012, 02:17:52 PM »
This plant, flowering under glass in the UK today, was grown from seed as Romulea obscura. I think it probably is. That species is quite variable both in flower colour (often pink or red rather than the yellow or apricot of these plants) and in flower size (usually bigger than these, which are barely bigger than a centimetre across).
It grows on sandy flats in the western cape of South Africa.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2012, 05:04:52 PM »
These, opening on sunny days at the moment, were grown from seed (ex Jim and Jenny Archibald) as Romulea saldanhensis, which is a plant restricted to wet granitic flats on the west coast of South Africa. The flowers do have black lines inside (which is a characteristic of this species), but the black netting marks on the outside of the sepals of some of them (second picture, and not mentioned in my books) is so distinctive that it makes me wonder whether these are true, or whether they might be accidental hybrids.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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Alisdair

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Romulea tetragona
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2013, 11:00:15 AM »
Another of the beautiful South African romuleas, Romulea tetragona grown from seed is flowering for me under glass in England, where it has a severe mediterranean regime of a long dry hot summer, and winter watering. In the wild it grows in stony clay in the north-west Cape, with (not much) winter rainfall and dry summers. It flowered last year for the first time, but I never saw it (the flowers open only on sunny days - and it throws up several in succession from a single bulb). Its narrow leaves are rather distinctive, having four winged ribs.
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society

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MikeHardman

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2013, 08:50:03 AM »
Another beautiful flower and photo Alisdair! (nicely complementary background)
Mike
Geologist by Uni training, IT consultant, Referee for Viola for Botanical Society of the British Isles, commissioned author and photographer on Viola for RHS (Enc. of Perennials, The Garden, The Plantsman).
I garden near Polis, Cyprus, 100m alt., on marl, but have gardened mainly in S.England

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Alisdair

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Re: Romulea
« Reply #14 on: March 10, 2013, 11:37:45 AM »
Thanks, Mike! Those romuleas, when they are fully open, are almost impossible not to show well in a photo....
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society