and another thank you to Paulo Araújo of Portugal for sharing a few of his photographs. Paulo submitted these images via this thread in the Botany Photo of the Day Submissions Forum. Much appreciated!

Paulo writes:

"The sight in early autumn of these stalkless flowers sprouting directly from the parched earth amidst dried-up grasses is quite wonderful. In spite of appearances, these plants do have leaves - but they will only show up much later, in spring. There are many synonyms for Merendera montana (among them Merendera pyrenaica and Colchicum bulbocodioides) and I don''t know which one is currently accepted ( Daniel -- RHS Plant Finder seems to agree with the posted name). Whatever its name, it only occurs in mountain pastures and other high open places in the Iberian Peninsula. These photos were taken at the end of September in Serra do Alvão, in the northern half of Portugal."

"I am including a third photograph to give you an idea of the kind of environment these flowers were found in. The granite outcrop is quite typical of the region; heather, gorse and bracken are to be seen on the foreground; the pine tree is a small Pinus sylvestris (which, eventhough not native, has been planted extensively since the 19th century in our northern mountains and is now naturalized)."

Wikimedia has a few more images of Merendera montana. To read about the "protocooperative" relationship between Merendera montana and Microtus duodecimcostatus, a mole-vole, see: Gomez-García D., et al. 2004. How does Merendera montana (L.) Lange (Liliaceae) benefit from being consumed by mole-voles? Vegetatio. 172(2):173-181. doi: 10.1023/B:VEGE.0000026325.93477.45. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin    Source

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