Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Sand crocus (Romulea bulbocodium)






Romulea bulbocodium is a crocus like flower belonging to the Iridaceae family. The name of the genus is derived from Romulus the founder of Rome and alludes to the abundance of those flowers in the suburbs of Rome.
It can be easily mixed up with crocuses but they have two main differences. First of all their leaves don't have the distinct central white line that crocuses do and the flowers are on stems and do not come directly from earth like the crocuses. Finally they corms have a characteristic circular or semi-circular plate on their base.
One of the main characteristics of Romulea bublocodium are the big stigma arms (I think that they look like a windmill) that protrude above the anthers. Their colour can be purple, white with purple ends, yellow and not that often white, like mine, but the center of the flower is always yellow. It is one of the first blooming flowers.



2 comments:

Dani P. said...

Λευκό αστέρι ... λιτό και όμορφο.

Giga said...

On jest piękniejszy od tych rosnących w ogródku. Pozdrawiam. *** He is more beautiful than those growing in the garden. Yours.