Zoellnerallium

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Zoellnerallium is a genus created in 1975 to accommodate what was then a single species, Zoellnerallium andinum, a plant which had formerly been included in either Ornithogalum or Nothoscordum. It is a mountain-growing genus of the Alliaceae, found in the Andes of Chile and Argentina. Naming in the group is still confused and this is not helped by European “expertise” ignoring Chilean botanical research.

Zoellnerallium was expanded in 2007 to include a new second species, the white Zoellnerallium serenense.

The genus is dedicated to one of the leading botanists of the twentieth century in Chile, the late Otto Zoellner who died in 2007 at the age of 98, having devoted his working life to the study and classification of the Chilean Flora.

Available for ordering from Spring list.

Zoellnerallium andinum

Small, up-facing tubular, six petalled starry flowers are held on thin, tough stems about 15-30cm tall. Each of the three outer petals has a central red-brown stripe, in the otherwise similar inner three petals the stripe is only half the length and is a bright emerald green The base petal colour is variable though it seems that in most forms the petals are either yellow or a lovely pale lemon-lime shade. White forms are said to be known but the genus is still poorly studied.

The leaves are thin and tubular and have vanished at flowering time. This is no stunner but it is different and no less beautiful than many Allium or Nothoscordum already in cultivation – in fact it is nicer than many. Easy and happy if treated as if it were a Mediterranean bulb such as a Fritillaria or Allium, grown in a well-drained, gritty soil in full sun, dry in summer.

Photo, S. Teillier, with thanks.


Zoellnerallium andinumzoeandand	£3.50