Another baffling entity that appears to be allied with C. autumnale or C. byzantinum is C. tenorii, which has starry flowers with wide-flaring narrow segments and crimson-tipped styles. It blooms later than C. byzantinum, opening its flowers at about the same time as C. cilicicum and C. autumnale 'Album'. In my last post I confused the bloom time of 'Pink Star'/C. laetum hort. with this plant. 'Pink Star' does indeed bloom earlier here. On the other hand, I find C. byzantinum and C. cilicicum to be quite distinct. Of the two, C. cilicicum blooms considerably later, is usually darker in flower, and has much longer styles. Its habit is also "tighter". Finally, the corms are very different -- C. cilicicum has broadly conical corms, whereas those of C. byzantinum are flattened spheres. As Jane notes, corms of different provenance can vary widely in their characteristics. For example, my C. bivonae corms are cone-shaped, like those illustrated in Phillips & Rix. Russell At 02:49 PM 10/4/2009, you wrote: >Jane McGary wrote: >The plant I have as C. laetum flowers just a little before C. >byzantinum, but at the same time as "C. byzantinum album hort," aka >C. 'Innocence'. The "C. laetum" hort. here has hooked crimson stigmas >as Russell mentions. > >I don't think corm size is very diagnostic in the large colchicums, >because it varies greatly depending on cultural conditions. Corm >shape is helpful in identifying some of them, though, e.g. C. >bivonae, which has a distinctive shape like a squashed sphere. Even >shape, however, would be affected by how crowded the corms have >become if they haven't been lifted regularly, or if they have become >deeply buried and have elongated. > >Jane Mcgary Russell Stafford Odyssey Bulbs PO Box 382 South Lancaster, MA 01561 508-335-8106 http://www.odysseybulbs.com/