Kazakhstan Revisited (4) - Other Miscellaneous Plants

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This blog contains plants I found interesting that don’t fit into any of the other blogs I’m writing about this trip!

Dactylorhiza umbrosa is an orchid we saw several times, always growing near streams or other damp places

Corutsa brotheri liked similar conditions, and often grew with the orchid. Later, we saw cortusa turkestanica which is similar, but the flowers are less open

The miniature primula turkestanica is a member of the primrose family, growing on well-drained soil in full sun. An alpine bed would be suitable for it if you could manage to grow it in the UK

Up near the snow line, we found a couple of Juno irises. This is iris orchioides

Iris willmottiana was similar, but with mauve-blue flowers

We came across three different flaxes on the trip, all with quite large flowers. Two of them had pink flowers, but in linum altaicum, they were blue

Lindelofia is a genus of plants from Asia in the borage family, many having blue flowers. Lindelofia tschimganica is an exception, only named in 1961

Allium barszczewskii is one that I’m going to look out for; its strong colour would be good in the garden on such a small bulb

On a very sandy area, almost akin to sand dunes, we found astragalus alopecurus. Inside the ‘hairy’ growths are tiny yellow flowers, protected from the harsh heat and dry conditions

We found papaver croeum growing both near Almaty, and several hundred miles away near our second base at Dzhbagly. The latter were a bright yellow; the ones near Almaty contained more orange in their colouring

But if you want a real orange flower, erysimum croceum is the one you want. We found a colony in a rock face by the roadside leading into the mountains outside Almaty