From Semirom we went in a northwest direction towards the town of
Lordegan.
On this 1st of May 2003, in a gorge
on vertical cliffs at an altitude between
1800-2000m we found Dionysia zagrica. Most of the plants were past
flowering.
Higher up in the gorge we found some plants still in flower, but most of
them
being completely inaccessible. Also this species has probably a
limited
distribution. In this gorge we also found another dionysia species, these
plants
were very loose growing and were restricted to one very shaded rock face
only
together with Dionysia zagrica. It turned out to be Dionysia caespitosa
ssp.
caespitosa.
Richard Hewer, who accompanied his father Tom Hewer on a botanical
expedition in 1973, discovered Dionysia zagrica.
Again, this species was introduced into cultivation by the 1998 SLIZE
expedition
