Description
Native to Karpathos, one of the twelve islands of the Dodecanese. First described in 1990. A fairly hardy miniature, which looks like a smaller version of S. lutea. Numerous bright yellow, slender flowers with elegantly protruding pistil and stamens, appear at the end of summer to autumn. Only for a warm place in a well-drained soil. Sometimes, the plant forms stolons.
BELONGS TO THE FAMILY OF AMARYLLIDACEAE
This genus was named after Count Kaspar Moritz von Sternberg (1761-1831), the author of “Revisio Saxifragarum” (1810). The flowers bear a visual resemblance to those of the crocus, but there are essential differences.
The most important: Sternbergia has six stamens, the crocus three. They probably belong to the plants referred to in the Bible as 'the lilies of the field'.
For a sunny location on well-drained soil where there is sufficient warmth during the dormant period in summer.
