Description
Epipactis royleana was described by John Lindley in 1840 and named in honour of John Forbes Royle, a surgeon with the East India Company and curator of the Sarahrunpur garden. Royle employed a network of collectors to bring him new plants and “Royle collector” is often seen on herbarium specimens of the time.
Although often cited as coming from India or the Himalayas, Epipactis royleana is widespread right across the mountains of central Asia from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Nepal and India, reaching western China also.
This has an almost uniformly deep, deepest purple-pink to dark red flowers which, in some forms, approaches the colour of Epipactis atrorubens. However Epipactis royleana is a creeping species which grows in damp ground and which emulates the habitat of its American cousin, gigantea, in growability, increase and vigour.
The stems vary from 20-35 cm tall and bear several to as many as 15 flowers. Easy in the garden in a damp, to even wet, but well-drained soil in full sun and a good multiplier with underground rhizomes forming a small colony of tightly clustered stems. It is very hardy and capable of taking very low temperatures in the ground.
NOT available for U.S.A., Norway, Switzerland, etc.
Epipactis are no longer shipped outside of the UK and EU.
