Description
Another new introduction, this time from the Alpine Garden Society’s expedition, again brought in as seed and grown on to maturity in the UK.
The plant is typical aperta but at the same time it is subtly different. 15-50 cm tall stems with graceful spikes of one to several pale pink, nodding flowers with the purple spotting across the interior of the flower concentrated in the centre of the widely open blooms. The exterior of the flower is dusky madder and makes a superb contrast in the bud.
It might be of interest to know that this strain consistently shows flowers with a zygomorphic structure, the third, lower, petal being developed differently from the upper two in the manner of some orchids – evolution in action?
