Authors: L.
Heavily spotted leaves. Flowers in shades of pink, lavender, purple or rarely white, the throat dull yellow with a brown to rusty-red zone, even in the white forms. The outer three tepals have no auricles, the inner three bear small median ones. Anthers blue to purplish with lilac-grey pollen. Filaments white, in a drawn out diamond shape, flattened, longer than the anthers. Style white, thickening along length (clavate), dividing into three recurving, but not reflexing, branches. E. d-c. subsp. niveum is a smaller, geographical variant from the Bibor mountains of Romania. Flowers palest lavender. The leaf markings fade rapidly after the shoot unfurls. Blooms very early in the year and is inclined to open its flowers whilst still inside the clasping leaves unless kept in a cold spot. Subsp. ochrantherum has white, cream or pale yellow anthers. A rare plant which can occur sporadically in wild colonies, probably not deserving more than the status of forma. Several colour forms have been cloned and given cultivar names. 'Charmer' (large flowered, pale blush pink), 'Frans Hals' (violet pink), 'Lilac Wonder' (soft lilac flowers), 'Old Aberdeen' (deeply mottled leaves, medium sized very deep violet flowers), 'Pink Perfection' (delicate pastel pink), 'Purple King' (large flowers of mid violet-pink), 'Snowflake' (ice white and unmistakably distinct from subsp. niveum).
a, E. dens-canis; b, E. hendersonii; c, E. revolutum;
