elegans) is a perennial growing from a tuber, native to the Alborz Mountains in northern Iran and southeastern Azerbaijan.

It is native to forest in the Alborz Mountains of northwestern Iran and extreme southeastern Azerbaijan below 500 m (1,600 ft) elevation, where it can even be found growing in moss on the lower limbs of trees.

It is similar to Cyclamen coum, and was once considered a subspecies (Cyclamen coum subsp.

elegans), but leaves and petals are longer as well as C. elegans flowering earlier in October or November.

[1] The petals of C. elegans also have a dark blotch at the base of each petal in the flower head.