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These plants come from a collection by Frank Kindon Ward. He discovered it on Mount Victoria in central
Burma in April 1956. My plants came from Roland Bream, holder of the National Collection of Roscoea and came to him from Cath Dryden. Jill Cowley described the species formally in 1982. Jill Cowley says: "This species of Roscoea may still have been growing, unknown and unsung, on Mount Victoria in West Central Burma, if it had not been for the vigilance of the explorer, profesional plant collector and writer, Frank Kingdon Ward. He collected seed from that "bare" looking Burmese mountain in april 1956, when the heat had already completely dried up the steep grassy slopes. He was curious to know what had been growing there, and only by lying prostrate on the ground did he begin to see the dried up remains of the plants that had been so abundant, among them being dwarf irises, gentians and some roscoeas. Some of the gentians and roscoeas had come adrift and even though they were in a skeletal state their capsules still retained seed. Kindgon Ward noted that as a general rule the roscoeas' soft capsules were held below the surface of the soil and were protected by the broad bases of their leaves." Gary Dunlop says: "There are two colour forms in cultivation, both descended from Kingdon Ward's original collection... The smaller purple-flowered form, which seems to have originated at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, also entered commerce, misidentified as R. tibetica. Both forms are very stocky plants with broad leaves presented horizontally with little vertical separation and flowers which barely emerge from the top of the barely-noticeable pseudostem." |
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| 18th July 2015 | ||
