About Cyclamen coum Mill.
Cyclamen coum Mill. produces roots only from the center of the bottom of its tuber. The tuber stays small, reaching only around 6.5 cm (2.6 in) across. Its leaves are round, kidney-shaped, or long heart-shaped. Leaf color can be entirely silver, entirely green, or silver with variegation that features a variably sized green arrowhead-shaped (hastate) or "Christmas tree" pattern and a green edge. The leaf edge is either smooth or gently toothed, and is never angled and pointed like the leaves of Cyclamen hederifolium. This species has squat flowers with nearly round petals, a trait that distinguishes it from all other groups of cyclamen species. Flowers bloom from winter to spring, and petals come in magenta, pink, or white, with a darker blotch at the base. A small white or pink "eye" sits below this dark blotch. Cyclamen coum is native to two separate regions. Its main native range surrounds the Black Sea, extending from Bulgaria through northern Turkey to the Caucasus and Crimea. A separate disjunct population occurs near the Mediterranean, from Hatay Province in Turkey through Lebanon to northern Israel. Cyclamen coum subsp. coum grows in the western section of the main range and the southern Mediterranean population, while C. coum subsp. caucasicum inhabits the eastern section of the main range, including the Caucasus. Plants with intermediate characteristics occur in the central part of the species' range. In cultivation, Cyclamen coum self-seeds and grows more slowly than Cyclamen hederifolium, and it is typically out-competed when the two species are grown together. Both the species Cyclamen coum and the cultivar C. coum subsp. coum f. coum Pewter Group have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, a status that was confirmed in 2017.
