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Pure white flowers that come very late in the season. The plant came to me from China, and when my head stops spinning, I will have another attempt at tracking down the species. Although white flowered forms of R. tibetica have been introduced to cultivation, this plant has distichous growth rather than the rosetted leaf arrangement to be expected from that species, and the corolla tube is short and mostly enclosed in the bract (as opposed to the long flower tube of R. tibetica). It shows some characters that could be associated with a white form of R. australis in the distichous leaf pattern but the labellum is deeply lobed and quite unlike the shallowly lobed labellum of R. australis. The flower lacks the chunky, forward facing disposition of the forms of R. australis that I am familiar with. Finally, it resembles the recently described R. bhutanica in its distichous leaf arrangement and deeply lobed labellum but the labellum lobes are shorter than the lateral petals. I got it from Chen Yi in 2006 and the cataogue entry says "T.482 Roscoea sp.(1) Altitude 3500m" The quoted altitude puts the plant higher than the published figure for R. australis (2130 - 3000m) but within the range pubished for R. tibetica (1800 - 4270m) and R. bhutanica (2290 - 3600m). The plant is unusual in flowering in autumn rather than spring. Briefly, therefore, my head is still spinning and I have no conclusion to offer. |
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| 22nd September 2006 | ||
