Had a nice chat again with an autumn crocus bud (Herbstzeitlose - Colchicum autumnale) and asked her how's it going, and when would she consider beginning the flowering season appropriate.
The answer she gave was 'why, just look around' - and that is what I did:
... and another one:
... yet another one:
... and just one more:
... but of course it would be really impossible to show them all. They're everywhere, as every year when the flowering begins - but strangely enough only in Lower Lobau so far, not yet in Upper Lobau.
Finally just as a reminder to the less regular readers of my blog about the nature of this plant. Last year the flowering began between 15th and 18th of august as shown on last year's blog entry - this photo was taken on the 18th and already shows a flower at least a couple of days old; this year we're between 22nd and 24th of august, so a bit later (as I'm not each and every day in Lobau I can't be sure of the exact day, but my guess is that all the flowers I have seen today were not older than one day if not younger or still closed as shown above).
The plant is deadly poisonous in all its parts - leaves and flowers alike, and though it is really difficult to believe that one might take autumn crocus leaves for ramsons this happens from time to time (though a person making this fault only does so once in his or her life, certainly). The leaves shown here appear in spring and bear a fruit (sometimes two or three - each flower produces one fruit, and some plants have up to three flowers even though in most cases only one). In early summerthe fruit are ripe and the leaves wrinkle; at the time the flowers appear no sign is left of the leaves - the flowers grow out of the earth (of the onion of the plant, to be exact) without any leaves attached to it. This and its life cycle is what really is interesting about the Herbstzeitlose. The flowers soon will become rather ugly, they only look like that when they are fresh - and in a few days the flowering of the autumn crocus will be over again.
