Cyclamen alpinum is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 growing from a tuber

Tuber

Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

, native to pine

Turkish Pine

Pinus brutia, the Turkish pine, is a pine native to the eastern Mediterranean region. The bulk of its range is in Turkey, but it also extends to the East Aegean Islands of Greece, the Crimea, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, western Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus...

, juniper

Juniperus excelsa

Juniperus excelsa is a juniper found throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria across Turkey to Syria and the Lebanon, and the Caucasus mountains. A subspecies, J. excelsa subsp...

, sweetgum

Liquidambar orientalis

Liquidambar orientalis, commonly known as oriental sweetgum or Turkish sweetgum, is a deciduous tree in the genus Liquidambar, native to the eastern Mediterranean region, that occurs as pure stands mainly in the flood plains of southwestern Turkey and on the Greek island of Rhodes.-Biotope:The...

, or cedar woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

 at 350–1500 m (1,148.3–4,921.3 ft) above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

 in an area of southwestern Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, northwest of Antalya

Antalya

Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. With a population 1,001,318 as of 2010. It is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.- History :...

, isolated from other species of the Cyclamen coum

Cyclamen coum

Cyclamen coum is one of a group of cyclamens with stubby flowers and nearly round leaves. Species of the group are native to areas near the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean and the Black and Caspian Seas, from sea level to alpine tundra.-Etymology:The species name is the adjective of a place name...

group.

Name

The alternate species name trochopteranthum comes from Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 trochós "wheel" and pterón "feather", "wing", probably meaning "propeller" and ánthos "flower".

The scientific name

Binomial nomenclature

Binomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...

 Cyclamen alpinum has been applied to three other species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 as well: Cyclamen coum

Cyclamen coum

Cyclamen coum is one of a group of cyclamens with stubby flowers and nearly round leaves. Species of the group are native to areas near the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean and the Black and Caspian Seas, from sea level to alpine tundra.-Etymology:The species name is the adjective of a place name...

, Cyclamen cilicium

Cyclamen cilicium

Cyclamen cilicium is a perennial growing from a tuber, native to coniferous woodland at elevation in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey.-Etymology:...

, and Cyclamen intaminatum

Cyclamen intaminatum

Cyclamen intaminatum is a perennial growing from a tuber, native to oak woodland in scattered spots at in western Turkey...

(as a variety of C. cilicium).

Description

Leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are oval to round, green and often variegated with silver above (unlike the similar species Cyclamen parviflorum

Cyclamen parviflorum

Cyclamen parviflorum is a perennial growing from a tuber, native to high elevations in the Pontic Mountains of northern Turkey. It is the smallest cyclamen species and the only one native to alpine tundra....

, which is entirely green) and red-purple below.

Flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s have 5 petal

Petal

Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They often are brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. Together, all of the petals of a flower are called a corolla. Petals are usually accompanied by another set of special leaves called sepals lying...

s, pale rose-pink to pink-carmine

Carmine

Carmine , also called Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red #4, C.I. 75470, or E120, is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminum salt of carminic acid, which is produced by some scale insects, such as the cochineal beetle and the Polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for...

 or white with a dark magenta spot at the nose, spreading rather than fully upswept and often twisted like the blades of a propeller

Propeller

A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...

, as in Cyclamen parviflorum var. subalpinum.

Forms

Cyclamen alpinum forma leucanthum (= Cyclamen alpinum forma album) has white petals.

External links

• Cyclamen Society — 1997 expedition (Cyclamen trochopteranthum)
• Paghat's Garden (Cyclamen trochopteranthum)
• Pacific Bulb Society (Cyclamen trochopteranthum)
• Germplasm Resources Information Network
• photos — wild plants
• photos — Jearrard's Herbal
• photo — TrekNature
• photo — South Wales Alpine Garden Society Show