Description
When first introduced to cultivation many years ago in the times of E.A. Bowles, this was known only as a vinous-purple flowered plant with slender blooms composed of narrow, twisted petals. The colour made it very desirable, however the actual appearance of the flowers was not really very attractive. Subsequent discoveries by J&K Persson, Jim Archibald and Kerndorff and Pasche have shown that a much wider range of variation exists within this species.
It is characterised by relatively narrow petals of soft-violet to purple, a white throat, incurving yellow anthers and a small, barely branched yellow to orange style buried deep in the anthers. The forms around Icel are the “classic” forms with deep vineous violet-purple colourings. We do find the deep purple forms of this species are the trickiest to grow, they are largely desert or semi-desert plants and do not suit our own cultivation methods and the deeply-coloured forms are really not the prettiest, as they invariably have narrow petals, however this stock does well and increases nicely by both seed and division.
Introduced to our lists May 2019. Raised from seed of a collection made by Peter and Penny Watt at Icel, South of Gulnar at 500m.
