FORGOTTEN FLOWERS OF NORTH-WEST TURKEY

For some years I’ve led tours around Turkey - the world’s premier temperate bulb paradise - visiting the south-west, central, north-east and east, but one area had always missed out the north-west.  Admittedly it lacks some of the scenic splendour of other areas, but forest clothed mountains of Uludag, Bolu and Boz Dag as well as the silvery placid waters of Lake Abant are all worthy of a look.  This corner of Turkey is also home to some its finest massed bulb displays especially around Bolu where there exist spectacular carpets of flowers in spring.  Uludag had some wonderful drifts of golden Crocus gargaricus (mixed with chrysanthus) and the varied lilac shades of lovely Crocus biflorus pulchricolor, the latter of which is on the surface at least identical to Crocus abantensis (there are obvious bulb tunic differences below ground…but…) that was abundant above Lake Abant.  The areas around Bolu were smothered in flowers with countless Cyclamen coum, thousands of Corydalis integra, primroses, streamsides studded with broad-leaved Galanthus plicatus byzantinus, swampy areas with the striking bottle-brushes of Petasites hybridus and big stands of lentern rose Helleborus orientalis.  I had previously visited the Bolu area in May and at this time there are sensational carpets of Muscari aucheri and orchids a plenty such as Orchis pallens on show, so at least two visits are needed.

I also tracked down four other specials; the pretty bicolored Iris attica growing on areas of limestone scrub, the pretty pink sibthorpii form of Primula vulgaris tucked among the dense beech forests of Uludag and the endemic and delicate Fritillaria fleischeriana on the sticky red soils that give so much colour to the central hills.  Not far from these was Muscari adilii, named after my father-in-law Professor Adil Guner.  I wanted to make the pilgrimage to see the flower in the wild marly hills near Beypazari and the flower itself was really rather fine, especially set among its’ austere surroundings.  All in all this 'forgotten' region of the country is a very rewarding and distinctive place to spend some time and not only for the flowers, Bursa is the original home of the delicious Iskender Kebap, there are some gorgeous old Ottoman houses on show in some of the towns and villages and some excellent birding to be had with Black Vultures, Bullfinches and Pygmy Cormorants all on show.

Crocus biflorus pulchricolor

Cyclamen coum

Crocus gargaricus

Muscari adilii

Fritillaria fleischeriana

Iris attica

Beech forest

Wooden house at Yazica

SPECTACULAR SPRING IN THE 'STANS'

What a superb trip this turned out to be!  Despite the financial worries of laying out for the trip it delivered with a stunning array of early season flowers.  I began in Dushanbe capital of Tajikistan arriving at the hideously early hour of 3am followed by very slow immigration, but once through I got a couple of hours sleep and then I was on the road with my team from Pamir Travel Company (who looked after me very well while I was there) driving into the snowy Zerashan Mountains where over the course of five days I managed to ace all of the flowers I'd hoped for, beginning with Iris vicaria and Bellevallia atroviolacea, then the gorgeous Iris rosenbachiana, big Fritillaria eduardii and the unbelievably refined Corydalis popovii.  Then there was the valley of five million (I kid you not) Iris bucharica that stretched for ten kilometres across both slopes of a valley.  The landscape was stunning too with plunging knife-edged ridges and row upon row of peaks and everything culminated in a simply dazzling display of Crocus korolkovii with maybe fifty thousand golden flowers spread across the bare ground, too dense to tread among and a fabulous mountain backdrop. 

Numerous passport checks but ultimately no problems saw me cross the border into Uzbekistan and meeting up with the people from Advantour (excellent service again) and drove onto Shakrisabz seeing Tulipa micheliana on the way.  The next day I explored the Amankutan Pass and what a place this was, beginning with the big Iris magnifica and followed by the iris I most wanted to see Iris warleyensis – wow, what a flower.  There were masses of snowmelt species too with some great corydalis, Primula fedtschenkoi and Colchicum kesselringianum.  Naturally I spent some time looking around the beautiful blue tiled mosques in Samarkand but then it was back to the flora and a journey north to Chimgan near Tashkent.  I had a reliable (and patient) mountain guide there called Vasily and during our two days walking in the hills we found big populations of Fritillaria severzovii, Fritillaria stenanthera, Tulipa kaufmanniana, the varied hot colours of Tulipa tschimganica, oceans of Tulipa turkestanica and the golden Colchicum luteum  in abundance.  Everywhere were masses of Corydalis ledebouriana and Gymnospermium albertii, whilst in the limestone scree we found Corydalis darvasica and by snow melt the black-speckled ivory-white Crocus alatavicus.  The last flower of the trip was a colony of Iris orchidoides on a steep scree slope and by then I was out of memory but I had more than enough material.

Choosing what pics to post was tricky but here are ten of my favourites most of which should make the book;

Iris bucharica

Apricot blossom and poplars 

Corydalis popovii

Crocus korolkovii

Fritillaria eduardii

Blue Mosque, Shakrisabz

Primula fedtschenkoi

Crocus alatavicus

Iris warleyensis 

Tulipa tschimganica

IRISES OF CENTRAL ASIA

Just as I thought my hopes of reaching Central Asia were just a dream everything has come together at the last minute and I’ll be flying to Dushanbe in Tajikistan in early April.  The plan is to visit the mountains around and east of the capital on the edge of the Pamir and then some areas to the north in the Fan Mountains.  I’ve only got five days but hopefully my team from Pamir Travel Co will get into the best spots.  Janis Ruksans has also given me some pointers on where to visit to find the main target species – Iris rosenbachiana, Iris bucharica and Fritillaria eduardii.  The latter is a real rival to Fritillaria imperialis that colours the steppe in parts of Iran in April (see pic).  On day six I plan to cross over into Uzbekistan and meet up with a different team from Advantour, driving up from the south-east to Samarkand via the Amankutan Valley and then onto Tashkent and the Ugam-Chatkal Nature Reserve.  Amankutan is home to the amazing Iris warleyensis and towering Iris magnifica and these are my main targets here, but no doubt there will be plenty of tulips and other great spring stuff too. 

My previous spring visit to Central Asia was to the Tien Shan of Kazakhstan, mainly around the superb Aksu-Dzabagly reserve.  I found a couple of good irises there the best being Iris willmottiana (caerulea) and the foxtail llilies and tulips were magnificent.  Summer is special there too with amazing flower meadows that haven’t been grazed for nearly a century and chock-a-block full of wonderful herbs and butterflies.  The Karatau Mountains are close to but separate from the Tien Shan and here I saw one of the finest allium species in the world – Allium karataviense.  I hope to be able to spend more time in Central Asia in the future it has loads to offer the plant crazy photographer.

I’ll post the new iris images as soon as I have them, for now though here is Fritillaria imperialis at Dasht-e-laleh in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, Iris caerulea at Aksu-Dzabagly, Kazakhstan and Allium karataviense in the Karatau Mountains also in Kazakhstan;

Fritillaria imperialis

Iris willmottiana

Allium karataviense