View Single Post
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 22-08-2007, 10:38 AM
paul m's Avatar
paul m paul m is online now
Really Wild Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Sheffield, UK
Posts: 1,580
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guy F View Post
It does look like a Colchicum from the book. I suppose that it will emerge from the soil more in time?
I'm not sure what the orchid is, there doesn't seem to be anything similar in the Mediterranean wildlife book. When I visited the Spanish mountains the plants flowering periods seemed quite strange. Some plants seemed to be flowering later than in Britain while some seemed to be flowering earlier, I suppose the flowering times there must be affected a lot by the latitude and altitude.
Guy
What we need is a good botanist. I know that Colchicum is often sold as "Autumn Crocus" causing some confusion but it seems from Fleurs du Roussillon that "Colchicum" is actually three species. My specimens don't look like the illustrations of Colchicum autumnale on the web (not shown here). Rather they resemble the Merendera montana shown on this site?

The other confusing thing is that both groups tend to flower either in autumn or in spring - what was this one doing in mid-August? I suppose that, at this moderate altitude, spring might be late or autumn early?

Yes, I saw the same thing as you - blakberry and rowan were still in flower but many 'early summer' plants were in seed ....
__________________
"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."
Napoleon Bonaparte

Last edited by paul m; 22-08-2007 at 10:39 AM. Reason: typo
Reply With Quote