Description
Flowers appear in spring, in the wild from March to May, pale to deep pink with a darker reddish pink nose, a pure white (forma albiflorum) is known in the wild, fragrant with a sweet scent. The corolla lobes are reflexed, 15-30mm long, 5-10mm wide, with pointed tips generally 180 degrees twist, no auricles at the base.
Leaves appear in early spring, full grown by flowering time, thin blade, oval to triangular, edges faintly lobed often with scalloped margins, dark or grey green background with pale green, grey-green or silver markings, from a jagged zone or patches around a dark central triangular area to random splashes all over the surface, underside pale green or purplish, 2-15cm long, 1.5-15cm wide.
Tuber
Tuber a compressed sphere, medium sized at maturity, up to 7cm diameter, brown, smooth, with fine velvety hairs, becoming rough with age, branching thin (0.5mm) diameter roots arise from the centre of the underside.
Distribution
Cyclamen peloponnesiacum grows in the eastern, northern and (the main area) central southern (Mani peninsula) Peloponnese. Cyclamen vividum grows in the eastern southern (Parnon mountains) Peloponnese, overlapping in the north of its range with C. peloponnesiacum.
Habitat
Cyclamen peloponnesiacum grows in humid, shady places in woodland, scrub and at cliff bases, from 350-1500m.
Cultivation
Cyclamen peloponnesiacum is not particularly hardy but when planted deeply, 10-15cm, in a sheltered and damp (not wet) situation, could make a good garden plant in milder parts of northwest Europe. In colder climates they grow well as pot plants in a frost-free greenhouse, performing best when well shaded. Pure white flowered plants and those with leaves with brighter patterning, including an all over silver wash, are often grown. In cultivation C. peloponnesiacum has hybridised with the closely related C. balearicum (C. x saundersiae) and, since C. creticum, C. repandum, C. rhodium, which are geographically separated in the wild, have the same chromosome number, hybridisation among them is likely.
Cyclamen peloponnesiacum f. albiflorum
Cyclamen peloponnesiacum is found in the Greek Peloponnese to the west of the Parnon Mountain range and in the northern Peloponnese. Normally it has very pale to rose-pink fragrant flowers with a darker reddish pink to magenta nose. On some flowers the corolla lobes are a somewhat darker pink towards their tip. An entirely white-flowered albino form has been found in nature and named Cyclamen peloponnesiacum f. albiflorum.
Usually found in damp shady places, but not unknown in more open situations where it gets more sun such as on roadside banks at the edge of woodland or low scrub. It appears happiest in broad-leaved woodland in areas that are quite wet to the extent of being boggy.
