Sorry to keep you waiting - the heavy snowfalls have not helped.
It was a pleasure meeting everybody in Gent and I hoped you enjoyed the talk.
Since my return I realised there were plants that I had intended to include in my talks, especially on Iran, and these will be shown first.
A little background to my trips to Iran:-
I first went in 2004 with Bob & Ranveig Wallis. As you probably know the Wallises are very interested in Fritillaria and our trip was timed to see the maximum number of Fritillarias in NW Iran. It was a very successful trip. Although the newspapers give a very bad impression of Iran, we felt very safe and the people were very friendly, especially the Kurdish people - we were invited to a picnic at which they gave us excellent food and danced and sang for us.
In 2005 we went earlier in the hope of seeing some more Fritillaria in flower - particularly Frillaria gibbosa (Seen in seed in 2004), and also Galanthus transcaucasicus. We were again successful. We also visited Esfehan - nobody visiting Iran should miss this fascinating city.
Although friends returned to Iran every year, my next trip was not until 2008. This was to visit the eastern part of Iran - Mashad - and further exploration of the NW. It was unfortunately a year of drought and the volume and vasriety of plants seen was much reduced. In spite of this we found new plants and had a most enjoyable trip.
My final trip to Iran was this year in April. A strange trip in many ways as the weather was very cold and there were areas where there was no sign of bulbs, where previously they had been abundant.
