Cyclamen somalense growing in the wild. Photograph courtesy of Mats Thulin

Cyclamen somalense is the newest member of the genus to be described. It was descovered in November 1986 by Mats Thulin and Ahmed Mumin Warfa in the Al Miskat Mountains, southwest of Qandala in the Bari region of Northeast Somalia. They described it in March 1988: " It is only known from the type locality where a few populations, each with a fair number of individuals were seen at 1,250-1,600m (4,100-5,245ft) altitude.The plants were growing in crevices of more or less north-exposed limestone rocks in the mist zone. At the end of November the plants were in full leaf but only a few flowers and young fruits were seen. The climate in the area is generally hot and dry during the summer and fairly cool and with frequent mists and showers during the winter when the night temperature may drop to 5ºC." "Cyclamen somalense in its exauriculate corolla-lobes and non-coiling pedicels agrees with Cyclamen persicum, the species from which the numerous cultivars of the florist's Cyclamen originates. C. persicum is native in Crete, Cyprus, Karpathos, the E. Aegean Islands, Rhodes, S. Turkey, Syria, Palestine, and Tunisia. It has a unique chromosome number in the genus, 2n=48, and so far all attempts of producing interspecific hybrids involving C. persicum have failed."*

"The chromosome number of C. somalense is not yet known, but judging from the overall similarity between C. persicum and C. somalense there should be a good chance of obtaining hybrids between them, a possibility of a considerable horticultural interest. A possible indication of an agreement in chromosome number in the two species is that their pollen grains are of more or less the same size [17 - 19 µm in C. persicum according to Schwarz (1955: 260) versus 17.5 - 19 µm in C. somalense]."

"Cyclamen somalense differs from C. persicum mainly in four features. (1) The tubers are subglobose to elongate and only about 3cm in diameter, while in C. persicum they are depressed-globose and usually considerably larger. (2) The leaves are generally wider than long, with a somewhat angled outline and a fairly coarsely toothed margin. In C. persicum the leaves are generally longer than wide, with a not or scarcely angled outline and a closely denticulate margin. (3) The pedicels are about as long as the leaves at anthesis, while in C. persicum the flowers are held high above the foliage. (4) The flowers are small, with corolla-lobes 15x5-7mm, while in C. persicum they are larger with corolla-lobes 20-37x10-18mm."

The leaves are rather fleshy, deep dull green with a marked silvery pattern in the middle above, purple beneath. The flowers appear with the leaves, not held high above the foliage, pedicels arising from leaf axils on a condensed floral stem which is commonly rough with the bases of decayed petioles. The flowers are more or less pale pink suffused with carmine around the mouth.

*This is no longer true as interspecific hybrids between C. persicum and C. hederifolium have been artificially achieved.