Vegetative propagation methods of some Crocus species spreading at western Anatolia

Crocus is the genus which has the richest taxa among the geophytes in Turkey's flora. Vegetative propagation studies were carried out on two endemic Crocus taxa spreading at western Anatolia such as Crocus olivieri ssp. balansae and Crocus baytopiorum. The taxa were picked up around the regions where they spread and their species were identified. The methods of vegetative propagation such as basal cut (BC), cutting corm from top to bottom (CTB) and cutting corm from bottom to top (CBT) had been applied to the dormant corms of the taxa. The effects of these methods on corms were studied for two years. After the treatments the rate of consisting corms and cormlets, flowering rate of plants and loss rate of corms were determined. For the first year the cormlet rate had the higgest value (73.3%) for C. olivieri ssp. balansae at BC and followed by CTB (66.7). For Crocus baytopiorum the rate of cormlets was highest in the BC (66.7%) and second treatment was CTB with 46.7% ratio. For the second year at Crocus olivieri ssp. balansae the higgest value in terms of the ratio of cormlet formation was obtained from CTB (91.7%), followed by the BC (75.0%). For Crocus baytopiorum, the highest number of cormlet formation (83.3%) was observed in the group CTB and followed by BC (75%). Vegetative bulb propagation methods were used for the first time on these Crocus taxa and the response was positive. The best treatments were BC and CTB.