Description
(syn. Asarum hexalobum controversum)
The flowers in this species are caramel brown with broad, triangular lobes apparently of the same colouring though closer examination reveals a pale ground colour dotted and spotted all over with darker brown. The flower is quite substantial and behind the three obvious lobes, the tube is severely narrowed. You have to see it to appreciate this effect. The flowers sit, more or less at ground level, with the foliage which is rounded and glossy, each leaf marked and zoned in paler shades and deeply indented where the leaf stalk supports it.
Said to differ from the related hexalobum on leaf characters and also in the severe constriction of its calyx which is notably “wasp waisted”. The flowers also tend towards being zygomorphic.
A very narrow endemic, limited to a handful of localities on Kyushu and the adjacent Hirado Island in Nagasaki prefecture. Readily grown as for the other species but exceedingly rare in cultivation. Introduced to our lists in 2012.
