Melvyn Jope, Chris Clennett and Ray Johnstone undertook the Cyclamen Society's expedition to study Cyclamen repandum in the Peloponnese area of southern Greece on 13 to 28 April 1992. The purpose of the expedition was to carry out surveys of the repandum populations at various sites, and to find plants of horticultural merit to introduce into cultivation. The expedition held permits for the introduction of collected plants to the UK.
The collected plants were to be grown for a number of years at Tile Barn Nursery. Seed from these plants is be collected and made available to the membership via the distribution scheme in much the same way as C. coum has been.
The two forms of repandum which the team studied were:
We arrived at the island of Poros early Tuesday morning. After settling in to our apartment, we still had most of the day to look around. First we crossed the narrow channel that separates Poros from the mainland and arranged a hire car at Galatas. We then returned to Poros and headed for the temple of Poseidon on the summit of the island, passing through pine woods containing mixed populations of C. graecum and hederifolium. C. hederifolium proved to have a good variety of leaf markings; one we found exhibited white areas on the leaves giving it a variegated appearance. The leaves of hederifolium on Poros, Hydra and low coastal areas of the mainland tended to be thicker with a more shiny surface than the usual types of hederifolium we see in cultivation.
Both cyclamen continued to be present to the top of the hill on which the remains of Poseidon's Temple is found. Many other plants were in flower, and in some places the amount of colour was a joy to see.
The next morning we crossed over to Galatas, collected the hire car and set off to explore the Argolid Peninsula, the most easterly of the Peloponnese peninsulas. A most suitable habitat, the Trezin Gorge near Galatas, proved negative in the search for repandum. This was to be the pattern throughout our circuit of this peninsula: a further eight stops and searches failed to find any cyclamen other than hederifolium and graecum although the flora was rich in many other plants.
One notable stop was made 6 km from Galatas: at a fairly recently burnt-out gulley we found hederifolium and graecum growing as specimen plants. The cyclamen, which must have been safely underground at the time of the fire, were now free of covering vegetation and able to make perfect domes of leaves.
We returned to Poros for the night and the next morning set off to begin a nine-day search of the Peloponnese in the car. Several stops and no repandums later found us about 24 km south of Tripolis. A roadside war memorial marked the entrance to a beautiful wooded dene, a small clear stream babbling its way along the bottom. Celandines, Trollius, wood anemones and deep-coloured violets with sheets of primroses gave the impression we were back in the British countryside; it was the presence of Anemone coronaria, Arum italicum, Euphorbias and Ophrys that reminded us of where we were. A large sheet of primroses lured me to take a photograph. As I focused on the primroses a splash of pink caught my eye - repandum had been found at last! One or two were growing among the primroses. The rest grew mainly on the steep wooded slopes above a rock face, but not in any great numbers.
Later we motored in Sparta where we found accommodation for four nights.
The Parori gorge is 5 km out of Sparta, and here we found lots of flowers including more repandum, sparsely at first but becoming more numerous as we continued up the gorge. We carried out our first survey at a suitable point, measuring and noting leaves and flowers from a random selection of 25 plants. A few hundred metres up the gorge we made another survey of 25 plants near a little church. The surveys took a long time and we did not go further up the gorge, but returned back to the car.
Saturday was overcast. We took the Kalamata road and stopped at a wooded area near Tripi where there were masses of repandum displaying some very good leaf forms. It started to rain, and we were thoroughly soaked and cold by the time we completed our survey of this site.
The next day was fair but dull, and we went north then east into the Parnon range. Our third stop near Karies proved successful for repandum, and a few kilometres further on they were present along the banks of a stream and a nearby ditch in big enough numbers to support a survey. Two stops later repandum turned up in large numbers in a pine wood, but the leaves at this site tended to be fairly plain.
We left Sparta the next morning and headed into the Taigetos mountains. From Paleopanagea a track heads west into the hills. The flora gets better as the track gets higher and rougher; repandum was present most of the way up. Eventually we came to a picnic area, which seems to be the base from which the Taigetos refuge could be reached on foot in l½ hours, and the peak of Profitias Elias (2,470 m, 8,100 ft) in 4 hr 15 min.
This was a marvellous area for plants, probably the best of our entire trip. C. repandum, hederifolium and Galanthus reginae-olgae carpeted the light woodland along the river banks. Deep red Anemone coronaria, a stunning deep blue form of A. blanda, violas, primroses and colchicums were also present. Cyclamen and snowdrops could even be found growing in the moss-covered trunks of mature plane trees. A most unusual hederifolium was collected at this site; the leaves were wavy-edged and lobed with a reticulate appearance.
We carried out a survey and then explored the area a little more. I chose to climb up a gulley, following the C. repandum which gave way to C. graecum as the gulley opened out into a rocky hillside. The plant life was becoming more diverse, two species of Colchicum, Crocus, Hermodactylus, Gynandriris, Ophrys and - a special treat on the way down - a good form of Ornithogalum nutans growing amid tulip leaves.
We eventually had to return down the mountain to make our way to Githio, where we stayed at a guest house opposite the little island of Marathonisi.
The next day we explored part of the Mani Peninsula. In oak-wooded hillsides near Passavas C repandum was present in quantity, and so were many species and hybrids of Ophrys. After the survey, our customary look around for good plants began and before long a shout from up the hill proclaimed the finding of an albino repandum. Hederifolium in some good leaf forms and graecum were also present at this site. We motored off making several stops but finding only small amounts of repandum at some of the stops. We went as far as Himara where lots of hederifolium and graecum grew on limestone outcrops.
We headed east from Githio the next day, intending to go as far down the Parnon Peninsula as we could. Eight km out of Githio we found repandum (in small quantities), hederifolium and graecum before reaching an agricultural area on the plains around Skala. Greek signposting being what it is, we eventually found ourselves at Geraki, well off our intended route. Stopping some 2 km out of the village, we saw our first Cyclamen repandum ssp. peloponnesiacum f. vividum before we even got out of the car.
This site was different from others as it was on open scrubby hillside, the cyclamen growing in the shelter of kermes oaks (Quercus coccifera) which helped them to survive the depredations of the flocks of goats in this area. We carried out a survey, then did our usual hunt around for good specimens. A plant was found with a strikingly different leaf, in the centre of an oak bush. As the eye became accustomed to the shadows of the bush, we noticed a flower belonging to the same plant which was also strikingly different, the untwisted petals 14 mm (0.5 in) wide and stubby, with the petal tip being replaced by a fimbriated edge. The honour of extracting the plant from the centre of this prickly bush fell upon the finder. During this uncomfortable operation, a similar but not quite so good plant was found a few inches away.
We checked the distribution of the cyclamen, and found they were present from the village of Geraki up to the summit of the road some 6 km away, which marked the point at which we returned to Githio.
We returned to Sparta the following morning, leaving our luggage in the hotel and then setting out east for Goritsa.
An impressive gorge contained C. repandum ssp. peloponnesiacum f. vividum, but not in great quantities. We headed to Kallithea and before long found the cyclamen in sufficient quantities to carry out a survey on a rocky hillside in Quercus scrub. Further on, 4 km south of Kallithea, the car skidded to a halt so that we could admire the large numbers of Ornithogalum nutans and Ophrys in the walled fields. Past Kallithea the road degenerated, and it was decided that we turn back rather than face over 20 km of this road.
The next day (Greek Good Friday) we left Sparta on our return to Poros, taking the road which crosses the Parnon range via Vourvoura and Aghios Petros to Astros. Two km west of Vourvoura, C. repandum ssp. peloponnesiacum forma peloponnesiacum grew in quantity on steep slopes above the road, alongside very good forms of Iris unguicularis and some colour forms of Anemone blanda. C. repandum ssp. peloponnesiacum, this time forma vividum, was found as we came into sight of Aghios Petros, growing under chestnut trees on the steep slopes of two gullies. Below the village we again found vividum, and concluded that this area was an overlap zone between the two forms. After a lunchtime stop at Nafplio we climbed up to the fortress, admiring the good forms of Campanula rupestris on the way. We then headed back to Galatas, returned the car and crossed to Poros. This was the end of our researches into C. repandum ssp.peloponnesiacum; the next two days provided only hederifolium and graecum in the environments of Poros and Galatas.