Description
(the genus has been considered to be called Latace also. If you accept that then this species would then become Latace andina)
Zoellnerallium andinum is something of a new species for us but it is an easily-grown, Chilean plant that thrives here in a well-drained, loam-based compost. We have it both under alpine glass (we like to think “for safety” and growing outside, in unheated plunge frames. Both methods of cultivation seem to work perfectly well for us and the plant appears to be cold hardy, though this may not apply if this is grown in soggy or badly drained soil.
Quite small bulbs (a lot will fit in a small pan) make short stems, usually 20cm here but 35cm is reported in the wild, with 3-7 up-facing, slender trumpets of white, shaded on the outside with a slender, deep purple-brown stripe which runs the length of each of the petals. The anthers are bright golden yellow and a sweet, light perfume pervades the air, when sun hits the flowers. Some of the more yellow coloured forms have been christened forma lutea.
Grown here, from UK seed of plants raised from a seed collection originally made at around 2,000m in the Andes of central Chile.