Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Another Caudiciform Impatiens

This one again coming from the Indo China region, where exactly I am not sure but I was told it was from Laos (unsubstantiated).
The medium size flattened bulb produce a plant with reddish stems and green leaves with a red mid-vein. The whorled arrangements of the leaves, the long racemes and its corky caudex sets it apart from the other more herbaceous Impatiens with Annual growth patterns. While resembling an I. mirabilis, this is quite different in a few ways namely the red stems the scarlet fine roots that appear when it breaks dormancy and scalloped leaves. Also, it is seasonally dormant, dying down to the horizontally flattened tuber annually, which is quite different from a mirabilis which rarely goes dormant unless in severe drought. On top of that, this plant rot so easily in the lowland that I am pretty convinced it is a dryish highland species.

Anyway there appear to be a few new species of caudex-type Impatiens unleashed from this region in recent years, mostly from the limestone hills.... so while we wait for the experts to publish their authoritative findings, I welcome any reports of other fellow grower's experience and observations on this interesting group of plants.

9 comments:

Hermes said...

Wherever it comes from, its a beauty.

Exodus said...

a fascinating plant!

Exodus said...

and it looks like allied to I. parishii

Hort Log said...

thanks for the suggestion - the form I know as parishii aff has white flowers with forward pointing spurs rather than a curved one. Vegetatively its also quite different - leaves are serrated and not scalloped.

Exodus said...

ohh, so does this impatiens register?

Hort Log said...

I think its a new species but a book on Thai Impatiens will be out soon

Exodus said...

oh nice! I did hear about the new book will release..

Jeff said...

Was the book ever printed? What is the title?

Hort Log said...

it appears the intended book was not published

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