Geranium subcaulescens in Central Greece

 Allan Robinson, UK

Initially we were very disappointed with our first sighting at 1800 metres on Mount Parnassus.The plants were very low, mat forming with the usual magenta-purple flowers of G.subcaulescens. They could easily be described as the form 'Giuseppi' almost as if Dr.Giuseppi had visited the ruins of Delphi and then climbed the mountain behind for some seed. The plants encountered in the Peloponnese in previous years have a more upright and compact habit and do not often form the "mats" of low foliage that we have seen this year.
Searching around on several mountains over the next few days we noticed another characteristic of this area. A good percentage of plants did not have the usual black centre associated with the species. They often had a pale or even whitish area at the centre of the flower which gave the impression we were dealing with another species. Often the petals were pink, individual clones varied considerably in shade. The photographs of these variants were taken on several mountains between 1800 and 2000 metres, approximately.

Photos  Allan Robinson, June 2008

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