|
|
I am always tempted when I receive seed lists to try
the seeds of plants that I have seen growing in the
wild, although perhaps being over optimistic in
expecting plants that grow at over 3000 metres in
Sichuan to adapt to Northern Ireland!
|
 |
|
There are over 300 varieties of Pedicularis growing
in China alone, many of them very attractive, but I
had always believed ‘louseworts’ very difficult to
cultivate being described as hemiparasitic, the host
plant not always obvious. [see
‘Plant of the Month’ June 2006 by Heather Smith]
|
|
However a few years ago at the SRCG weekend I bought
a small plant simply labelled Pedicularis sp. which I
planted in a raised bed and it has reappeared late
every spring since producing rather
straggly pink flowers in summer but no seedlings so
far. |
|
|
|
 |
So when I saw Pedicularis
rhinanthoides listed on Votjech Holubec’s
2015/16 seed list I promptly ordered some seed.
The seed, collected from TienBaoShan, Yunnan, China
at 3500 metres,2014, was sown in the usual seed compost at
the beginning of January 2016 and I noted that it had
germinated but unfortunately not the date or number. This
resulted in one plant transferred outside to a raised bed
in the summer. |
| It survived our mild winter making a compact leafy
mound, approx.. 15 -20 cms
across and
stayed in leaf unlike the ‘Scottish’ variety.
|
|
|
|
|
Much to my surprise I found it in flower as shown in the photograph on the 25th April this year, with 6 to 7 pink and white flowers several cm high and there are more small pink buds hidden in the foliage. This plant is more compact than I remember it in the wild. |
| Whether
it will survive or increase over the coming seasons in N.
Ireland remains to be seen
- I do hope so as it reminds me of a wonderful
botanical holiday spent in Yunnan and Sichuan under the
expert guidance of Chris Gardiner. |
|
Pedicularis
rhinanthoides in Sichuan |
|
|
