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Roscoea purpurea 'Peacock Eye' seems to be very like 'Peacock'. My plant is paler in flower, taller and with paler stems. This is not entirely in accord with the various descriptions that
have been circulated, but the descriptions available do not agree with eachother particularly closely. I was expecting a plant with a white spot on the labellum near to the mouth. I imagine this plant
was grown from seed, and that the spottedness is unreliable. In 1999 Paul Christian said in his Rare Plants catalogue: "Mid purple marked with a little white, the lip some 4.5cm long by 3.5cm wide. This has a very dark stem and leaf colouration rich in anthocyanin, so that the stem holding the foliage and the base of the flower bracts, is deep bronze. This colouring makes the flower colour come out beautifully. There is an added bonus that the plant takes on intense red shades in the autumn." Writing in the Journal of the AGS in 2008, Gary Dunlop says: "Several distinct cultivars were named by a Dutch grower, who was supplied with the tubers by collectors in India. They were released commercially by Dr. Paul Christian some years ago. The most distinctive is R. purpurea 'Brown Peacock' ...." The implication (just from the similarity of names) is that 'Peacock Eye' is another of the group. Over the years plants offered with "Peacock" group names have varied widely and it is difficult to know what to expect from them. Paul Christian's descriptions are the earliest I have been able to locate. |
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| 26th August 2005 | ||
