Cyclamen coumMill. Eastern Sowbread

Cyclamen coumMill. - Eastern Sowbread

Scientific Description:

Tuber small, generally less than 3.5 cm diam., strongly depressed-globose, pubescent, rooting from base. Leaves appearing in winter and early spring a little before flowers, suborbicular or broadly ovate-cordate, 2−5(−7) cm long and almost as wide, dull green or usually variously marbled above, margins entire or sometimes irregularly toothed. Corolla pale or dark magenta, rarely white, lobes exauriculate, reflexed, suborbicular or broadly ovate, 8−15(−l7) mm, acute or obtuse, margins entire or rarely somewhat toothed, base marked with a conspicuous dark blotch surrounding a small white or pale pink eye. Style included or shortly exserted. Fruiting pedicel coiling from apex.

 

Flowering time: February−May.

Habitat: Pinus brutia L., Abies L. and Quercus L.-Fagus L. forest, under scrub on rocky hillsides, s.l.−2135 m.

 

var. coum

Leaves orbicular or suborbicular, entire or subentire; corolla lobes short, obtuse or rounded, usually less than 10 mm.

 

Reference:

Meikle RD (1978). Cyclamen coum Miller, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 6: 132.

Public Description:

Cyclamen coum var. coum, known as “eastern sowbread”, and is native to the Black Sea, from Bulgaria through northern Türkiye to the Caucasus and Crimea. It is a tuberous perennial herb with pink flowers and can be reach 8 cm in length. The Eastern Sowbread is valued in horticulture as groundcover as a decorative ornamental plant. It is one of the three Cyclamen species exported from Turkey. The reason of giving names such as “yersomunu (means ‘subterranean bread’)”, “domuzturpu (means pork bread) among the Turkish people for this plant is due to the fact that the pigs eat the tubers of this plant which they liked very much by driving the land. It opens its flowers in the early spring and grows in red pine, fir, oak and beech forests and under scrub on rocky hillsides.

 

 

References:

Anonymous (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclamen_coum/Cyclamen /,Accessed date: 15.04.2016.

Coşkunçelebi K (2012). Cyclamen L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 768–769.