A tuberous perennial about 32 cm tall. Heart-shaped fleshy leaves up to 14 cm, green with paler silver marbling above and pale green or reddish below, slightly thickened serrated margins, long-stalked and spirally arranged. A rounded flattened corky tuber 4–15 cm across, formed solely by thickening of the hypocotyl. Solitary nodding flowers on long stalks with five petals sharply reflexed upward like rabbit's ears or a bonfire, the Chinese names; wild plants pinkish-white with a dark eye, and the florist's cyclamen (all descended from it) red, pink, white, purple and picotee, some scented. The Chinese name is a transliteration meaning the arrival of immortal guests; the city flower of Qingzhou in Shandong.
Habitat
Rocky hillsides, shrubland and woodland up to 1,200 m in its homeland, dormant through hot dry summers and growing in cool moist winters; a winter-spring pot plant in East Asia that struggles through summer.
Distribution
Native from south-central Turkey to the Levant and North Africa; a winter-spring pot plant across China with Qingzhou in Shandong the production centre, one of Japan's best-selling winter pot plants (shikuramen), only at cool flower shows in Singapore.
Season and behaviour
December to April, pots on sale around the Spring Festival; one plant flowers for two or three months.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
The upswept petals show their rabbit's ears only from the side at flower level, with a macro for the twisting lines and the dark eye; the silver-marbled heart leaves are the second subject, from above. Pink and red are truest in soft light, and a pot in window light is a ready winter still life. Avoid direct noon sun, a stop under for white forms.
Photographic styles
Reflexed rabbit's-ear flowers; silver-marbled leaves from above.
Similar species
Ivy-leaved cyclamen, Cyclamen hederifolium (autumn, hardy, ivy-shaped leaves); Cyclamen coum (winter, small round flowers); the many florist's cultivars.
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons; its licence and author are under it.
Why it is listed: this species comes from the Flower checklist (GBIF backbone and Wikidata verified). Names follow the GBIF backbone and Wikidata; the facts follow the sources below; photo recognition is not offered.
