Description
This is known only from the Kara Tau, where it grows in gullies at the edge of melting snow. The parent stock is one collected early in the last century for the Dutch firm of Van Tubergen.
This is a tetraploid species but whilst tetraploids are often thought of as being larger, this species is the reverse, being very dwarf. It has just two blue-green, hairy leaves, made from a small bulb, above which stands a reddish, flower stem, also covered in hairs. The whole plant, in flower, is barely 4 cm tall (in good light). The leaves have a thin red edge and red underside whilst the flower is pink outside, fading to white at the edge with a central green strip. Inside it is pure white with a yellow basal blotch on the outer three and a deeper, almost orange blotch on the inners.
A perfect little miniature, growing very well under alpine glass, in pots and, in the right site, reasonably well outside in a well-lit alpine rockery situation with both good, fertile, loam-based compost and good drainage. Dry in summer.
