Cyclamen are tuberous perennials in the family Primulaceae (Eudicots, Order Ericales), found across western and southern Eurasia.
is from the Caucasus Mountains. Formerly classified as Cyclamen purpurascens ponticum but native to only a small area far removed from the range of C. purpurascens. The leaves tend to be rounder and have little or no silver mottling. They are thicker and leathery, compared to leaves of other species of Cyclamen. The flowers are markedly smaller than those of C. purpurascens, at least as both grow side by side in my greenhouse.
Cylcamen purpurascens is a woodland species, native to the southern Alps eastward through Austria into Slovakia, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia. It blooms from spring through summer into autumn. The tubers should be planted deep in the ground when grown outdoors. The plant is variable when grown from seed, but tends to have silver mottling on the heart- or kidney-shaped leaves.
