Wikipedia ~ Cyclamen is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants, traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae, but in recent years reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae. The genus is most widely known by its scientific name Cyclamen being into common usage; other names occasionally used include sowbread and sometimes, confusingly, Persian violet, or Primrose.
Cyclamen are native to the Mediterranean region from Spain east to Iran, and also in Northeast Africa in areas such as Somalia. They are perennial herbaceous aestivating plants, with a surface or underground tuber 4-12cm diameter, which produces leaves in late winter, and flowers in the autumn; the leaves die down during the hottest part of the Mediterranean summer drought to conserve water. Each leaf or flowers grows on its own stem, which shoots up from the hypocotyls. The variegation is thought by some botanists to be a form of natural disruptive camouflage to reduce grazing damage by animals.
The hypocotyls grows leaves and flowers on stems, either one flower or one leaf per stem. The stem for leaves and flowers appears identical except in height. The leaves grow on stems of around 6-9cm height.
The leaves grow on stems up to 8cm tall and form a tightly bunched circular disk of leaves. Leaves are rounded to triangular, 2-10cm long and 2-7cm broad, and usually variegated with a pale silvery horseshow-shaped mark round the middle of the leaf. The top of the leaf is split with the split extending to the connection with the stem. A common cultivar available in western shops has a leaves with a heart shape.
The stems for flowers rise from the middle of the disk of leaves. The stem for flowers grows up to 12cm tall, and the end of the flowers stem curves 150-180 degrees downward. The flower bud terminates the stem. The various cultivars produce flowers with either four or five united petals growing from the edge of the flower bud. The petals are usually reflexed back 09 degree to 180 degree to be erect above the flower bud, and vary from white through pink to red-purple, and most commonly pale pink.
The fruit is a five-chambered capsule 1-2cm diameter, containing numerous sticky seeds about 2, diameter. Natural sed dispersal is by ants, which eat the sticky covering and then discard the seeds. Cyclamens are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Gothic.
The cyclamen is also the national flower of Isreal.
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