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A plant with a confused history in cultivation. I bought it in 2004 from Desirable Plants as R. humeana 'Purple Streaker'. They later ammended it to a
cultivar of "Unusual orchid-like, white/purple fls in June/July. Ht 25cm. Humus rich soil in part shade." In their 2005-6 catalogue they say: "A splendid short stocky plant with big flowers shockingly bicoloured purple and white. Previously listed as a humeana, which it resembles." I have not been able to locate the origin of the name 'Purple Streaker' but have always assumed that the plant derived from one of the Kingdon Ward collections from a population in eastern Bhutan and western Arunachal Pradesh (KW.11529 and KW.13755). Other collectors have also introduced plants from this distribution so this may not be derived from the Kingdon Ward plants. It is similar to 'Wisley Amethyst' but the markings on the labellum are much paler, appearing almost pink rather than purple. In 2017 Yoshida, Yangzom and Newman published a review of the population in eastern Bhutan and western Arunachal Pradesh and concluded that it represented an unrecognised new species, which they named Roscoea megalantha. |
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| 13th August 2007 | ||
