Cyclamen part 3

Cyclamen coum, I deliberately left this one until last because of its wide distribution and variation in form and leaf colour. Cyclamen coum can be found growing in the mountain and coastal areas of the Black Sea and Bulgaria in the west, to Georgia and the Crimea in the east. It can also be found in northern Iran, southern Turkey, down the eastern Mediterranean coast through Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Covering such a wide geographical area where it can usually be found growing in shady places in coniferous and broadleaf woodland, it comes as no surprise that there are in existence numerous variants.

Cyclamen coum ssp. Coum has a rounded tuber flat on the top and roots from the lower surface only. The flowers can range from white through pale and deep pink to purple/red and the foliage is so variable that I would not have space in this article to tell you about them all.

While Grey-Wilson (1977) has described some of the sub-species, but with few exception most of the plants that I will be talking about have only collection numbers as yet.

Cyclamen coum, coll. No. S24 N88570 that was collected in turkey has a large leaf for coum that is silver green and has a dark green Christmas tree marking in the centre of the leaf. The outer rim of the leaf has a dark green rim the same colour as the centre, and the underside in dark red. The flowers are purplish/pink and usually appear about November. A second plant with the same collection number has the dark Christmas marking only this time the outer rim is speckled silver and green.

Cyclamen coum coll. No. S10 N87054b (Coll. Turkey) has an all silver pointed leaf with not a trace of green; again the underside of the leaf is the usual dark red. The pale pink flowers look splendid against the silver background. Another plant from the same batch of seed has a silver leaf with a large Christmas tree pattern in the centre and no leaf edge marking.

A third plant from the same batch has a silver leaf, a large Christmas tree and green flecking on the leaf edge.

Cyclamen coum album has as its name suggests has white flowers and a plain green leaf with red reverse.

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