Description
Deep green, glossy leaves, marked with lighter veins around a pale central area. The leaves are held aloft from the elongated blooms.
The flowers are made up of very thick tissue and are turned back at the mouth to reveal a cream interior. The whole thing looks not unlike a radio telescope dish, although smaller.
An outstanding species, very distinctive and remarkably decorative in flower within a genus normally grown more for its foliage.
The colour of this species seems to be very variable. It ranges from a remarkably bright red (found in China) through pinks to red-rimmed white, pale green and an almost pure white form, which is found mainly in Japan. Our stock originates from Japanese horticulture and flowers have lost their pigment but retained some chlorophyll so they are instead a pale jade green with the thinnest of red lining inside the margins , distinct from the red forms (of course!) but also a very different shade to the other Japanese forms which we also offer.
