Tuesday 3 January 2006

Evergreen Leaves + Purple / Blue Flowers

This section will be written by Professor David Rankiin of Edinburgh University. This group is evergreen but monocarpic (die after flowering). These leaves vary from strongly lobed to almost fernlike. They are all racemose. This group has purple, mauve, blue and white flowers (all the evergreen monocarpics may have white flowers as albinos) and all are racemose as they flower expanding from a ground hugging rosette after between 2 and 5 or more years and can reach more than 2 metres in height. Height varies between species and altitude. This is M. wilsonii.The delicate pale blue flowers of M. wallichii. All these species come from the eastern end of the Himalayas or China.