Description
This has slowly creeping, terete rhizomes which make arching stems (spotted purple at the base) which reach a maximum of around 30 cm tall.
These stems are clothed in thick, plain green leaves which, uniquely in undulata, have wavy edges. On the underside, the leaves are sometimes marked with a little lilac, or even some green chequering.
In each of the leaf nodes there sits one or two, open bell-shaped flowers of thick texture. These have cream petals, internally spotted in dark-red purple towards the mouth. Above the resultant purple zone, the flowers appear yellow. The whole is lightly fragrant of citrus blossom.
Fully hardy with us (it survived our -17°C winter of 2010-11 totally unscathed). It makes a tight clump in a moist, semi-shaded spot in a humus-rich soil but tolerates sun and dryness remarkably well (responding with shorter growths).
Endemic to mountain forests at about 1,100 m on Emei Shan, Sichuan, these are grown and produced here however.
