Biology:Crocus tommasinianus

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Short description: Species of flowering plant

Crocus tommasinianus
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Iridaceae
Genus: Crocus
Species:
C. tommasinianus
Binomial name
Crocus tommasinianus
Herb.
Synonyms
  • Randjel. (Herb.) Nyman
  • Crocus serbicus Crocus vernus var. tommasinianus
  • A.Kern. ex Maw Crocus tommasinianus f. jeremicii

Crocus tommasinianus, the woodland crocus,[1] early crocus,[2] or Tommasini's crocus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae.[3][4] It is named after the botanist Muzio G. Spirito de Tommasini (1794–1879). It is native to Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia.[5] It is often referred to as the early or snow crocus, but these terms are shared with several other species, although C. tommasinianus is amongst the first to bloom. Multiple plants are often called tommies in the horticultural trade.[6]

Description

It is a cormous perennial of the genus Crocus in the family Iridaceae with a lilac flower, and is one of the smaller of the cultivated species. It has slender flowers about 2–4 cm (1–2 in) long, with white perianth tubes, petals (6) pale silvery lilac to reddish purple, while the outer petals may be overlaid with silver and darker tips. A variant, C. tommasinianus f. albus, is white. Its cultivars are used as ornamental plants. Height: 3 in (76 mm)

Habitat

The species is found growing around 1000 meters in woods and on shady hillsides, commonly on limestone with flowering occurring in January and February; the narrow leaves are fully developed by the time the purple flowers with white tubes blooms.[7]

Cultivation

It naturalizes easily earning an official recognition as a weed and is naturalized in the US state of Delaware.[8] It is often planted in large drifts in gardens and parks.

This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[9]

Cultivars

Colony of "tommies" (Elfenkrokus) in Planten und Blumen, Hamburg

Examples:

  • 'Barr's Purple' (amethyst violet)
  • 'Lilac Beauty' (purple)
  • 'Roseus' (Pink Snow)
  • 'Ruby Giant' (purple)
  • 'Whitewell Purple' (silvery reddish purple flowers, pale mauve on the inside)

References

  1. "Crocus tommasinianus". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CRTO8. Retrieved 17 January 2016. 
  2. (xls) BSBI List 2007, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, https://bsbi.org/download/3542/, retrieved 2014-10-17 
  3. "Crocus tommasinianus Herb.". The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. n.d.. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:436740-1. 
  4. "Crocus tommasinianus Herb.". Species 2000. n.d.. https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/ZL48. 
  5. "Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families". http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=327764. 
  6. "Tommie Crocus". The Gardener's Apprentice. 14 March 2016. http://gardenersapprentice.com/gardeningtips/tommie-crocus/. 
  7. Phillips, Roger (1989). The Random House book of bulbs. Martyn Rix, Brian Mathew. New York: Random House. p. 19. ISBN 0-679-72756-6. OCLC 19922564. 
  8. Serviss, Brett E.; Peck, James H.; Benjamin, Kristen R. (2016). "Crocus Flavus: A New Genus and Species of Non-Native Iridaceae for the Arkansas (U.s.a.) Flora". Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 10 (2): 513–516. ISSN 1934-5259. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44858594. 
  9. "Crocus tommasinianus". Royal Horticultural Society. https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/25699/Crocus-tommasinianus/Details. Retrieved 2020-04-17. 

Wikidata ☰ Q159271 entry