Botanical illustration of a babaluschka, showing roots and flower structure.
Sternbergia colchiciflora is the smallest member of the autumn-flowering "gold crocuses". Each bulb is scarcely 0.5–1.5cm in diameter and sends up three to six thread-like leaves after the plant has flowered. The foliage is 1–4mm wide, blue-green to dark green and often twists into a loose spiral as it elongates over winter. Its solitary flower appears directly from the ground between September and November and is carried on a very short, subterranean stalk. The narrow yellow perianth tube measures roughly 18–27mm; the six outer segments are only 2.3–3.3cm long and 2–5mm wide, giving the bloom a distinctly slender outline. Because both ovary and young capsule develop safely below soil level, the species is able to set seed even when bad weather prevents insect visits: the unopened flower can self-pollinate underground ( kleistogamy ). By early spring the capsule is pushed a centimetre or two above the surface, where the seeds—each tipped with a fleshy food-body—are collected by ants and dispersed locally.[7]
In popular culture
Hungary - Postal Stamp -1816 - Babaluschka (Sternbergia colchiciflora)
Sternbergia colchiciflora was featured on a Hungarian postage stamp in 1981.
Distribution and habitat
The species ranges widely from south-eastern Spain through the Balkans and Italy to the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau and western Turkey, inhabiting open, rocky grassland, light scrub and field margins on well-drained calcareous soils between 150m and about 2,300m elevation. In Mediterranean and steppe climates the bulb endures a long, hot summer dormancy; once autumn rain arrives a brief display of slender, pale to deep-yellow flowers may sprinkle otherwise brown turf. Its minute stature and tendency to hide its blossoms beneath surrounding vegetation mean natural populations are often overlooked, but the plant compensates with reliable seed production and can form loose colonies on undisturbed ground. In gardens it succeeds only if given an extended, warm, absolutely dry rest and a gritty, lime-rich compost; several bulbs planted together in a pot or the sunniest, most free-draining pocket of a rock garden make the discreet display easier to appreciate.[7]
↑ Steppes of Northern Eurasia: Materials of the Seventh International Symposium(PDF). International Steppe Forum of the Russian Geographical Society (in Russian). Orenburg, Russia: Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Branch, Institute of Steppe; Russian Geographical Society; UNDP/GEF Project “Improving the system and mechanisms of protected area management in the steppe biome of Russia”; Russian Foundation for Basic Research. 2015.
↑ Trutnev, Yu. P.; Kamelin, R. V., eds. (2008). The Red Data Book of the Russian Federation (Plants and Fungi) (in Russian). Moscow: KMK Scientific Publications Partnership. pp.57–58. ISBN978-5-87317-476-8.
↑ Mathew, Brian (1987), The Smaller Bulbs, London: B.T. Batsford, ISBN978-0-7134-4922-8 , p. 157–158
1 2 Pasche, E.; Kerndorff H. (2002). "Die Gattung Sternbergia Waldst. & Kit. (Asparagales, Amaryllidaceae) im Vergleich, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der wiederentdeckten Sternbergia schubertii Schenk" [The genus Sternbergia compared, with special reference to the rediscovered S. schubertii]. Stapfia. 80: 395–416.
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