Authors:
Leaves supervolute, glaucous, 6-32cm by 6-32mm Outer tepals 2-2.7cm by 9-19mm, inner tepals flared at apex, 8-15 by 5-8mm with apical and basal green marks. Bulgaria to northern Greece and western Turkey, in open rocky areas or phrygana and pine and juniper forest in leafmould. 'Cassaba', is a dwarf form with two or even three scapes and flat leaves. Could be a hybrid with G. gracilis. Has been seen in western Turkey in several locations. 'Flore-Pleno', see 'Kingston Double'. 'Fred's Giant' was found by Fred Sutherland, a former head gardener of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden, University of Aberdeen, about 30 years ago. It is vigorous and clump-forming with flowers to 6cm across and leaves about 3cm wide. Inner tepals have variable green markings; usually a straight-sided heart-shaped apical blotch and a pair of thick dashes at the base, but the basal dashes can be fused and both apical and basal marks can combine to form a rough X-shape. 'Green Tip' has outer tepals with green apical markings. There are a number of consistently green-tipped selections; others are unreliable. 'Kingston Double', was found under a cut-leaved beech at Kingston House, Oxfordshire by Elizabeth Parker-Jervis in the 1960s. 'Ladham's Variety' came from Ladham's Nursery, Elstead, Surrey. Grown by E.A. Bowles, at Sibbertoft and Maidwell Hall. A drawing of the Maidwell Hall plant shows robust G. elwesii with large flowers, inner tepals not flared, with a broad inverted V-shaped apical marking and a rectangular basal one, both just joined. Such markings are well within the range for this species. Var. maximus is technically a synonym of G. elwesii. It was described from Bulgaria but material at the Natural History Museum, London, does not seem to differ from illustrations of typical G. elwesii. Subsp. minor see G. gracilis. Var. whittallii is illustrated as having the inner tepals with two distinct round green marks above the usual apical one. In literature its position is unclear, but such forms are in cultivation. Originally imported from Izmir in large quantities and not a clone, hence the latin varietal name. Some authorities consider it falls within the variability of G. elwesii and place it in synonymy.
Joint Rock: Joint Rock Awards, AGS Loughborough Show, 7 March 2015
a, G. elwesii; b, G. nivalis; c, G. plicatus;
