Wildflower tours in Kazakhstan.

“I felt after I finished Slaughterhouse-Five that I didn’t have to write at all anymore if I didn’t want to. It was the end of some sort of career. I don’t know why, exactly. I suppose that flowers, when they’re through blooming, have some sort of awareness of some purpose having been served. Flowers didn’t ask to be flowers and I didn’t ask to be me. At the end of Slaughterhouse-Five…I had a shutting-off feeling…that I had done what I was supposed to do and everything was OK” 

Kurt Vonnegut.

Beautiful sights of Kazakhstan.

The historical information Rhinopetalum karelinii - the name of a sort comes from the Greek prinos - a nose and "петалон" - a petal, is given to a plant because of a form of a nectarivorous. The look is described in 1830 by the famous Russian botanist, the founder Gerbariya of the St. Petersburg botanical garden Fedor Bogdanovich Fischer (1782 - 1854) from the territory of the Western Kazakhstan and called in honor of Grigory Silycha Karelina (1801 - 1872) investigating flora of this region. The type is stored in St. Petersburg.
Distribution in Kazakhstan Rhinopetalum karelinii. The southern part steppe and practically all desert zone, including the foothills of the southern mountains (the South of the West Kazakhstan, Aktyubinsk, Karaganda and East Kazakhstan regions, the Atyrau, Mangystau, Kyzylorda, Jambyl, Almaty regions).
Cultivation Rhinopetalum karelinii. It is for the first time tested in St. Petersburg (till 1879), it is grown up in Ashgabat, Zhezkazgan and Almaty. In culture it is poorly steady, the individuals transferred bulbs blossom and fructify, but in 2 - 3 drop out.
Short description Rhinopetalum karelinii. Bulb 1.5 - 2.5 cm diam. Leafy stem 10 - 20 cm. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, narrowed toward the both ends. Lower leaves 5 x 1.5 cm, upper smaller. Flowers 5 - 8, in a terminal raceme, nodding. Perianth segments pink-violet with dark spot at base, checkered in middle part. V - early spring to mid summer. Fl - March in the wild (April, May in St. Petersburg). Fr - July. P - by seed and daughter bulbs.
Requires a sunny position and well-drained soil. Very well suited to the rock garden. Z 5 (4). New. Nectary on outer tepal much larger than others and spuned abaxially. Stamens slightly shorter than tepals, filaments usually papillose proximally; anthers subglobose or broadly ovate, c. 1.2 mm in diameter. Style scarcely lobed. Capsule wingless. Fl. Per.: April to May

Authority:
http://flower.onego.ru

Photos
Alexander Petrov.