Description
(You may also see this listed as T. tianschanica)
This Leiostemones section species makes a small bulb with a brown-black leathery coat clothed inside with fine, felted fur. It makes dwarf growths and the stem reaches from just 10 to 15cm tall with just 2-3 narrow, slightly undulate leaves. Crowning the stem is a solitary flower of bright, vivid yellow; each bloom is up to 2.5cm long. Vigorous plants can bear more than one flower. The inner petals of the flowers are often shorter and perhaps unusually, they are sometimes tinged with red (it is more usual in my experience that when petals are red-tinged on the outside, it is the outer set which have the colouring rather than the inners).
Excellent in a pot under glass and its small size and compact nature makes it a superb spring subject. It is more compact than many other species which are sometimes grown this way (e.g. altaica, iliensis, tetraphylla). Well-drained, loam based composts are ideal. Good light and low temperatures will keep the plants shorter under glass, though this is a hardy plant.
A lovely high altitude species growing at up to 1,900m from steppe lands in Kazakhstan, extending across the Tien Shan as far east as the westernmost province of China, Xinjiang.
First offered in our lists September 2017.
