Description
In growth form this little-seen Asian species is not unlike the (perhaps) more familiar S. amplexifolius. However S. simplex has larger flowers, which are solitary rather than clustered or paired. The flowers are substantially larger and are held on a long, wiry pedicel such that they hang clear or the foliage and nod in the breeze. They are open bells with broader, non-reflexing petals which although documented as white in the literature, are often stained or infused with pale pink, especially where the flower meets the stem that bears it. Internally the flower is beautifully spotted and spickled with tiny red-purple dots.
The foliage is long and slender and glaucous below. The leaves are held along a twisted, wiry stalk which is not unlike a Polygonatum in appearance and like that genus, the flowers are made from the axils of the upper leaves. You would normally expect several flowers per stem. Flowering is in June, bright orange-red berries follow in late summer and early autumn.
Streptopus simplex grows from a small rhizome only about 2mm thick (it’s a small rhizome, that is just how the plant is) which likes to be planted in a humus-rich soil in half shade (not full sun) and then left alone to establish and slowly clump up.
Described by Don in 1825 from Nepal the Flora of China also records that this is widespread across Tibet, Yunnan Bhutan, Myanmar, Sikkim and parts of , northern and eastern India. The altitudes recorded are 1700-4000m and it is almost always found in shaded places.
