Description
This tiny Romulea was originally described as endemic to the Balearic Islands though it has also now been found in France (2004), on the Iles d’Hyeres, near Marseille. It is a garrigue species, growing under shrubby Cistus, Erica, Ruscus, Genista and a variety of fragrant herbs, or under Olives, Holly oak and Pinus.
It has been compared to (and even at times united with), R. columnae, but this is incorrect – it is both distinct and different. It is very late-flowering (one of the latest Mediterranean species) and it flowers about 2 months later than that species, which is ripening seed as Romulea assumptionis is only just opening its first flowers. These incidentally only open when there is good sun and warmth, saving their energies when the weather is cloudy or cold. Once pollinated, they close and stay shut.
The 10-12mm petals are pure white with thin violet-hairstreak veins and they are fused at the base into a tube. It has pale yellow anthers, the pistil is white and has three, deeply bifid, branches shorter than the anthers. The leaves are tiny little threads, 3-10cm long but never over 0.8mm wide. They spread in one plane, making a fan of greyish-green tinged with red if the light is good. These filiform, greyish leaves alone separate it from R. columnae (with wider, flattened, green leaves).
Ready grown in a plunged pot under alpine glass (you will simply misplace it outside) in a well-drained, sandy soil dry from May-June until September. Please be warned that this grows from a tiny corm, whose diameter is measured in mm and not cm and 7mm is flowering size – yes, really!
Introduced to our lists May 2020
