Maja Balls - wrong name!

I got a plant labeled as

" S. marmoreum ex Prokletje - Maja Balls "

well, this name is all wrong!

Gerard Dumont only mentiones - S. macedonicum and S. heuffelii to be native to Maja & Maja Balls in Prokletije (he does not list S. marmoreum!).

I tried to figure out "balls" as the part of name. The word "balls" is not in Serbian language (spoken in Montenegro). There is also no Albanian geographical names containing "balls" to be found.

What about name "Maja"?

Maja Jezercë (Albanian for lake ridge!) is the highest point of the Prokletije mountain range at 2.692 metres above sea level. This is in Albania.

Many of other peaks in Prokletije have names starting with Maja:
Maja Gruk e Hapt, Albania - 2625 m
Maja Radohines, Albania - 2570 m
Maja Popluks, Albania - 2569 m
Maja Briaset, Albania - 2567 m
Maja Shnikut (Nikacki vrh), Albania - 2554 m
Maja Lagojvet, Albania - 2540 m
Maja Rosit = Rosni vrh, Montenegro - 2524 m
Maja Hekurave - 2625 m
Maja Kokervhake, Albania - 2508 m
Maja Malisores, Albania - 2490 m
Maja Livades, 2496 m
Maja Koprishtit, 2554 m
Maja Shkurt, 2499 m
Maja Fortit, 2340 m

There is also peak Maja Bojs (name sounds much alike english word "balls"! ) is situated in the central, main part of mountain range Prokletije and it is in Albania. It is close to the border with Montenegro.

Maja Bojs is a mountain reaching a height of 2.461 m.

So - I guess - Maja Balls is just a wrongly written form of Maja Bojs.

Anyone agree?

Zivijo!
Mogu da pisem na hrvatski (ali v slovenscini ) ali izgleda mi da u ovom dijelu foruma se koristi engleski... ?
I don't grow Sempervivum, haven't even known its Latin name. I only know the name 'rojnik' (Polish, my language) and 'cuvarkuca' - know it from my Bosnian and Croatian friends when we met this plant in Prokletije where it is very common. I found your forum accidentally when I was looking for some info about the mountains and maybe I can help with your question
Maja Balls is of course a mistake (naravno to nije Vrh Jaja! ), I guess it is Maja Bals, the Albanian name of Sjeverni Karanfil (2460m), one of the peaks above Grbaja valley. This part of Prokletije is much more often visited than Maja Bojs. 'Maja' is peak/mount in Albanian, I don't know what 'Bals' or 'Bojs' means.
I guess it would be safer to say that this species is native to Prokletije rather than only one specific peak, even if it's an endemic species - but I'm no expert at plants so don't take this at face value, it's just my guess.
I can see you've researched the summitpost pages of Prokletije, those are my favourite mountains and I even climbed some peaks there for the first time, like Maja Lagojvet last year
I can't help you too much about cuvarkuca but if you have any questions about Prokletije or the Balkan mountains maybe I could help!
Pozdrav,
Kamil

Kamil, you made me laugh - naravno to nije Vrh Jaja -



How come that you speak Croatin so well?! And you even know Slovene!

Thank you for the extensive explanation. It's hard to imagine the Prokletije mountain range if you havent't seen it with your very own eyes. Prokletije must be very hard to climb, right?

After reading your explanation I only know I even know less than I knew yesterday.


Maja Bals = Sjeverni Karanfil - is this the right habitat of this plant? The only way we will ever know is if someone someday finds the habitat again and ... Oh, well!


Thank you for helping us sort this out! Is it too much to aks if you see any plants looking like Sempervivum in Prokletije in your expeditions to this mountains, to inform us?!

Kamil, than you once again for explaining this.

Good luck when climbing!!

Hey again

Admin wrote:Kamil, you made me laugh - naravno to nije Vrh Jaja

...ali mozda je vrh do jaja!

Croatian and Slovenian are similar to my native Polish, I never learned them at school but I have so many friends from there and travelled all over ex-Yugoslavia that it was easy to pick up
Prokletije are very much like Julian Alps only much less frequented, without any good maps and very very wild, some mountains are still unclimbed.
I've seen cuvarkuca in several places in Prokletije, don't remember if I saw any when we hiked Maja Bals/Karanfili. Surely I will look for it in Prokletije and any other mountains and will take photos so you can identify them, that's also one of my favourite mountain plants!
Have a look at some of them I found in different places, I'm not even sure if they're the real mc coy, not to mention if any of them is S. marmoreum... BTW I found that S. marmoreum in Polish is "rojnik ćmy" which means "cuvarkuca nocnog leptira" or "moth's sempervivum"

1. Below Qatat e Verlla, near Maja Jezerce, Prokletije, Albania


2. Just below Malka Musala, Rila, Bulgaria


3. Cuillin Ridge, Isle of Skye, Scotland


If you identify any of them positively I can create an album at summitpost where everyone will be able to add Sempervivum pics and I'll of course give a link to your forum

Oh, my oh my, I'm no good in identification. I lack of so called "identification keys"!

I beleive on photo Nr. 1 and 3. there are Sedums - and I am no good in ID Sedums, sorry!

As for the middle photo - in Rila mountains there are to be found
S. ciliosum
S. ciliosum × leucanthum
S. erythraeum = (S. marmoreum ssp. erythraeum)
S. heuffelii
S. heuffelii glabrum
S. leucanthum
S. zelebori

This plant definitely isn't S. ciliosum.

If I see correct, leaves have fine hair on edges, right?

Do you recall a diamether of plant?

When was the photo taken (summer, after a long dry period?)?

Thanks for your identification! Yeah, I took the pic in Rila at the end of a hot summer, late August 2007. It was not too big, maybe 15-20 cm across, and yes it had those fine hair.
I can't even distinguish Sempervivum and Sedum They're related after all, in Polish their names are close, 'rojnik' and 'rozchodnik'.
Rojnik - kakor roj cebel ali rojenje, rozchodnik - ker se rozhodi
Perhaps I'll just open a succulent or Crassulaceae album at summitpost.

I beleive we can now exclude (marked red!):

S. ciliosum - it has more / longer hairs!
S. ciliosum × leucanthum
S. erythraeum = (S. marmoreum ssp. erythraeum) = bluish green rosettes with rosy center in summer
S. heuffelii - no hairs
S. heuffelii glabrum - no hairs
S. leucanthum - it has brown reddish tips in summer, yellow flower, but it also has hairs on the edge of leaves
S. zelebori - it's velvety all over, not just on edge of the leaves like it is the case here

My GUESS would be ..... hm, hm, S. leucanthum!

Cromaphyto, let's hear your opinion!