''Colchicum stevenii'', or Steven's meadow saffron, is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Hebrew: סתוונית היורה, Arabic: سَراجُ الغولة, سُورَنْجان

Description

Perennial. Corm oblong, tunics blackish prolonged along the sheath. Leaves 5-7, glabrous, very narrow, appearing at the same time as flowers. Flowers fasciculate, 3-10, short, pink, surrounded with a transparent sheath. Tube 5-6 times longer than perianth. Tepals obtuse or subacute, 20 mm long over 2–3 mm wide. Stamens yellowish, a little shorter than the filiform styles. It flowers in October–December, coinciding with the onset of the rainy season in the Levant, and is one of the first autumn flowers to bloom. Its violet-pink flowers will cover the burnt-out vegetation overnight after the very first rain.

Taxonomy

''Colchicum stevenii'' was first described by Kunth in 1843. The specific epithet ''stevenii'' honours Christian von Steven, author of various transactions of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow published since 1838.

Distribution and habitat

''C. stevenii'' is native to the eastern Mediterranean: Cyprus, the East Aegean Islands, Lebanon–

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, Israel, the

Palestine region Palestine ( el, Παλαιστίνη, ; la, Palaestina; ar, فلسطين, , , ; he, פלשתינה, ) is a geographic region in Western Asia. It is usually considered to include Israel and the State of Palestine (i.e. West Bank and Gaza ...

and Turkey. It is found in fields, meadows, woodland, rocky places along coasts, and lower and middle elevation mountains.

Chemistry

''Colchicum'' species contain colchicine, a substance capable of doubling the chromosome numbers of young dividing cells thus causing genetical changes in the tissues which may be useful in agriculture. Meadow saffrons were known to the ancients as a dangerous poison (see ''

Colchicum brachyphyllum ''Colchicum szovitsii'' subsp. ''brachyphyllum'', synonym ''Colchicum brachyphyllum'', is a subspecies of '' Colchicum szovitsii''. Nomenclature The subspecies name ''hrachyphyllum'' is formed from the Greek ''brakhus'', short, and ''phullon ...

''), and they are presently used as medicinal plants for the treatment of gout, the active agent being the colchicine they contain.Mustapha Nehmeh, Wild Flowers Of Lebanon, National Council For Scientific Research,1978,page139.

References

* Georges Tohme & Henriette Tohme, Illustrated Flora of Lebanon, National Council For Scientific Research, Second Edition 2014. * George Sfikas, Wildflowers of Cyprus, Efstathiadis Group; 1st edition, 1998 * Avi Shmida, Handbook of Wildflowers of Israel, Keter, 1992 {{Taxonbar, from=Q7219489 stevenii Flora of Cyprus Flora of the East Aegean Islands Flora of Lebanon and Syria Flora of Palestine (region) Flora of Turkey