Description
Asarum yaeyamense was first described by Hatushima in 1968 and it was for some years thought to grow only as an endemic on Iriomote Island in the very southernmost part of Japan (over 1,600 Km from Tokyo). In 2009 Asarum yaeyamense was also found in two locations in the lowland parts of the Hsuehshan Mountain Range, growing under deciduous trees in broad leaf mountain forests in Taiwan.
This has large, dark-green leaves with a lustrous upper surface and sometimes silvery markings. The lower surface is velvety and green. The flowers are large and conspicuous and have a fascinating structure and colour which is usually a very pale, yellow-green marked with a gorgeous indigo-violet around the carunculated throat. The Yellow form offered here is a horticultural propagation of an unusually coloured, large-flowered form which lacks the usual violet colouration around the throat.
Unusually for Asarum this also has a faint fragrance and this has a distinct suggestion of fruit to it (most Asarum are usually scentless, a very few are foetid).
Readily grown but in view of the great rarity of this colour form it is probably best cultivated in a pot under frost-free glass until its hardiness (or lack of the same) can be established. Although a mountain plant, this is after all from one of the most southerly and warmest parts of Japan.
