Cyclamen coum f. coum ‘BSBE 518 form 1′

At the end of Brian Mathew’s studentship at RHS Wisley, in March 1963, he set off to Iran for three months with three fellow graduating students (David Barter, Stuart Baker and David Pycraft) on what became known famously as the Bowles Scholarship Botanical Expedition (BSBE) 1963. They found the plant BSBE 518, with a striking silver and green leaf pattern, on the Black Sea coast in North East Turkey. Peter Moore bred and named two forms from the original plant. Form 1 has pink flowers with a magenta basal blotch and has leaves overall silver with a green margin. Form 2 also has pink flowers with a magenta basal blotch but has silver leaves with a green central hastate pattern. These are both good plants, great in the alpine house.