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Addict
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 08:22 am EST : |   
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I returned a week or so ago from a study tour to the Balkans with Tim looking at Hellebores and their habitats.
I greatly enjoyed the trip and thank Tim for the tour of his sites and his good company (not to mention the odd beer or two!)
I must admit to falling in love with the Balkans the most wonderful scenery and stunning plants as well as the locals. I particularly like Montenegro and Bosnia.
We discovered several new previously un-recorded sites and mapped a major extension to the known range of H. herzegovinus.
The trip was not a complete success as it has left me with far more questions than answers and I shall post on that later.
The Balkans are: to borrow a quote from Winston Churchill “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma – but perhaps there is a key.”
This applies to the people, the climate, geomorphology, geologic history, human history and not least to its wonderful hellebores!
When I got back I saw a new book by a senior officer of the metropolitan police who claims that the Balkan wars were actually started and kept going by international criminal gangs (including some heads of state and not the people and had little to do with ethnicity. I would like to believe this as I found all states full of good people and could not understand how the devastation I saw arose from civil/ethnic wars alone.
Well enough of my musings you all want to see hellebores I guess!
The trip started very badly as we left the UK in heavy snow and arrived in Zagreb to more of the same.
We changed our plans and went East to Bosnia and the Croatia Bosnia borders to see H. odorus, dumetorum and croaticus.
The first site was a valley as you can see it had flooded extensively due to heavy rains and thawing snow – this was unseasonable – global warming?
The odorus were on roadside banks and into the scrub woodland a beautiful sight.
No not Tim’s back view!
The hellebores were dry on steep banks of well drained soil with a good decomposing leaf litter topsoil and in full sunshine.
The next site was a new discovery where the woodland had slightly flooded due to the rain and we found H. odorus on the drained banks and dumetorum inside the wood and in many cases slightly under water.
It was difficult at times to identify the odorus and dumetorum which might suggest some inter species hybridisation but given some forms we saw it could also equally be spontaneous mutation showing extremes of “forms” within the species.
There were just 2 plants we found that looked like dumetorum but had very twisted spiraling sepals rather like Trillium stamineum.
One also had purple picotee sepals. There were no other plants with this markings or twisting and we new of no nearby colonies of croaticus that could have led to the picotee – thus it seems that dumetorum can produce red/purple picotee and not just white!
The next site was a well known dumetorum site. A grazed low lying meadow. The number of plants appeared to have reduced considerably since previous visits sadly.
Many of the plants were marked with the white picotee characteristic of the species but we also found 1 or 2 plants showing clear veining.
Next to a croaticus site where we met 2 charming local girls of 9 years or so who wished us dobar dan (good day)and smiled. In the UK it would have been what do you 2 perves want?
The meadow site showed significant variation in flowers but the woodland site was the more interesting. The floor was covered with croaticus like ground cover intermingled with anemone nemorosa, anemone ranunculoides and anemone blanda ( I think)
The variation in flower was enormous and one flower stood out to me a rose veined green that was glowing in the sunlight.
Wherever sunlight penetrated as trees died or paths opened then the flowers bloomed freely. In the shade just a few.
The flooded valley
The site
No comment!
Helleborus odorus basking in the sun - us too!
H dumetorum with picotee and spiral sepals
H dumetorum with spiral sepals
H dumetorum veined spotting
H dumetorum white picotee
H croaticus
H croaticus external
H croaticus
H croaticus wonderful rose colour
H dumetorum meadow site huge plants/groups
addict Staffordshire zone 8(just) UK |
Gabycher
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 01:38 pm EST : |
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Thank you, Mike, for the lively descriptions of your trip! The color variations you encountered are very interesting, and the rose colored H. croaticus is simply breathtaking!
I was also happy to hear, that there are hellebores in their natural range that survive flooding,- just as Terry had pointed out in a previous post. Being worried about the effects of the unusual amounts of snow and the resulting thaw we had and are having this winter, on my hellebores, your observations are putting my mind a bit more at ease.
Gaby
Gabycher
- Quebec,
Zone "5a / 4b"
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Terryk
 Supporting Member
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 09:31 pm EST : |
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Sounds like you had a wonderful trip Mike. It's nice to see some of the sites again, the meadow in particular looks like one we have seen before.
The color on the species is really wonderful. When I visited Tim, one sees how much better the plants are when seeing them in person than on our computers.
Thanks for sharing your trip.
Terryk
- NY,
Zone "6"
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Addict
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 02:12 am EST : |
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Gabrielle,
Please don't misunderstand the post - it was only H dumetorum that withstood temporary local flooding most other species will not especially viridis, herzegovinus, multifidus.
Love your picture for the avatar!
addict Staffordshire zone 8(just) UK |
Matthias
Supporting Member
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 04:31 am EST : |
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Mike, that H. croaticus site, was that in Republika Srbska in Bosnia or in Croatia?
Wide leaf segments for H. dumetorum in that last meadow picture!
Whenever other species are near, dumetorum colonies can contain some plants of hybrid origin. Your picotee/spiral sepal plants might be examples.
This a an example of one plant within a large dumetorum site which is not very far away from croaticus sites in Croatia.
Matthias
- South Germany,
Zone "7"
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Addict
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 04:56 am EST : |
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Matthias the reason the leaf segments are wide for dumetorum is because it is croaticus! my typo sorry - I had big problems uploading the photos and the titles got misplaced I thought I had edited them all but obviously not!!!!!!!!!
The croaticus site was in Croatia.
We found a new torquatus/multifidus? site in the Drvar area.
All of the new sites in Republika Srbska were herzegovinus.
We found a new dumetorum site between Orljavac and Vocin.
As far as we could see there were no croaticus or plants other than dumetorum or odorus nearby the picotee dumetorum and the twisting sepals plants. Both were under water but thriving.
Sorry to confuse you.
Will post more picture etc when I have had time to process them.
addict Staffordshire zone 8(just) UK |
Matthias
Supporting Member
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 08:22 am EST : |
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... I felt that I knew that meadow and the friendly children ... :-)
Does this site look familiar to you? It is between Orljavac and Vocin ...
and the photo of the pinkish flower was taken there.
Matthias
- South Germany,
Zone "7"
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Gardenfiend
Supporting Member
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 08:31 am EST : |
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Thank you so much for this, Mike!
Gardenfiend
- Germany,
Zone "7a"
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Addict
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 08:38 am EST : |
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No Matthias I don't recall that one - it's not the one we found the picotee in, that was a far flatter site than the one you show with less woodland canopy.
The veined spotted ones were on the meadow site you know I believe.
Yes the girls were very cute - I was most surprised when they spoke first and showed no fear of strangers/foreigners.
I only wish the "west" retained the old world attitude that children are children and not mini adults with all it entails.
addict Staffordshire zone 8(just) UK |
Galanthophile
Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
My Garden
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - 12:46 pm EST : |
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Very enjoyable posts - thanks for the entertainment Mike and the wonderful pictures. The "ordinary croaticus is my favourite. Superb.
Galanthophile
- Ann (Northern England),
Zone "8"
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Jgwoodard
My Garden
| | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 06:14 am EST : |
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An interesting description and some great photos Mike! Thanks for sharing these, and I look forward to subsequent postings.
I left the Balkans more or less convinced that there are probably many hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of other sites. When you consider the distance between roads and the reproductive capacities of hellebores, it would seem almost inevitable.
One thing I always love is when I see postings from the H. croaticus 'site' that is actually just someone's front yard. :-) They must think it's funny that people come there to see those plants.
I agree about the locals. Outside of a couple of overzealous men in a car one day, people were incredibly tolerant and friendly. The pace of life is also inspirational; and the sound of children running and singing in the streets was a memory that helped temper the reminiscences I have of the remnants of the tragic events that occurred in the region.
Jgwoodard
- TN,
Zone "7"
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