The plant world of Patagonia

[Maggi Young]

Well done on getting flowers, Martin.  Rather charming little things, for sure.

[gerrit]

A rosulate viola in culture and in flower, what an achievement. Seeds harvested by yourself I presume.

[gerrit]

A new species raised from Chileflora seed, Montiopsis sp 2147. At first sight it looks like Calandrinia umbellata,, but this new plantis as twice as big as C. umbellata. The genera Calandrinia, Montiopsis and Cistanthe are very similar, but regarded as separated species.

1. Flowerhead of Montiopsis sp 2147
2, Compare the two species.

[Martin Sheader]

A few plants in flower at the moment.
Mutisia decurrens we planted about four years ago. This climbing daisy grows at woodland margins and mountain slopes. It flowered for the first time last year planted in a sandy raised bed. The brilliant orange large flowers close at night.
In the same bed we have Oenothera acaulis with large white flowers, night flowering, each flower fading to pink the following day. This has seeded around for us.
Lomatia ferruginea is a large shrub in the Proteaceae with unusual flowers. If dry at the roots in spring or early summer, it may fail to flower, but this year it has done well. Annoyingly, we haven't succeeded with its relative Embothrium coccineum!

[Martin Sheader]

Also in flower in the greenhouse are a number of alstroemerias. A. versicolor is from central Chile (northern Patagonia) and has intricately marked upright-facing flowers. At altitude it may grow as a dwarf, with sometimes a single flower per stem, but at lower altitude it can be taller  - about 30cm.

Moving north out of Patagonia, growing in the same sand bed as the oenothera is Hypseocharis pimpinellifolia. This one time member of the Geraniacea is now in the Oxalidaceae. We have a couple of plants which die down in autumn, reappearing in June. The bright red flowers are produced throughout the summer, each flower lasting a single day. Our plants have survived outside for many years.

One final shrub from Northern Argentina is Iochroma australe. This brugsmansia relative forms a large deciduous shrub producing many flowers throughout the summer. For us it needs regular pruning, and anything growing beneath it is buried in a blue mat of old flowers - but it's worth it for the spectacle!. 

[gerrit]

What a glorious plant, the Mutisia decurrens. Unfortunately i did not see it in real, The species, M. retorsa an M. spinosa, i did see in Argentina.
A splendid photo Martin.

So they are related, the very red Embotrium and this Lomatia whith remarkable flowers.

Also a beautiful and stunning Iochroma. What a colour.

Thanks for sharing these amazing plants, Martin.

[Maggi Young]

Friends living  not far from us in Aberdeenshire grew  Mutisia decurrens for many years - the bright flowers delighting all who saw them. We never managed to establish it properly here in Aberdeen - even though the pink hybrid  M. oligodon  grows  very well for us.

 I agree with Gerrit - the Iochroma is  a smasher!

[Steve Garvie]

Wow!!!
Superb plants Martin!

The Mutisia decurrens and Iochroma are particularly appealing.
Are there any commercial sources for these plants in the UK?

[ashley]

Acnistus australis (syn. Iochroma australe) is available from Chiltern Seeds in both blue & white forms, & germinates easily.  A gorgeous thing.

[Martin Sheader]

I'm not sure where we got our Iochroma. Burncoose Nurseries sell it, and one of the nurseries at this years AGS Kent Show had it under its old name Acnistus australis. At the same show, small plants of Mutisia decurrens were for sale on the members sales table!
I will try to pollinate and collect seed from my M. decurrens; some species of mutisia are self fertile.
The RHS describe Iochroma as half hardy, but it has certainly survived quite a few frosts with us down to about -9C so far, but we do live on the south coast in UK's banana belt!

[Steve Garvie]

Thanks Martin.
I had thought of growing the Iochroma in a large pot and moving it under glass in the winter but it looks to be too big a shrub to allow this.
If you ever have seed of M. decurrens available for swap please keep me in mind.

[Carolyn]

Steve,
Might be OK to rrisk the lochroma outside. A friend of mine has a large one growing beside a south facing wall near Dumfries, about half a mile from the coast. It has survived there for several years so far and is a mass of flowers just now. I got seeds from her last winter and am growing on 5 seedlings, which I plan to try in various spots in the garden - but I might keep one in the greenhouse just incase! The seedlings look like bedding plants in the early stages - petunias or nicotiana - but are very fast-growing. Mine are about 30cm tall now and the stems are thickening and becoming woody. Seed is available from Chiltern seeds - I think they still llist it as acnistus.

[Gail]

My iochroma survived outside here last winter. Not flowering yet but it was badly hit by red spider mite last year...

[ruweiss]

Martin, your Mutisia decurrens looks great, I was not succesful with it until now, but
Mutisia spinosa grows and flowers profusely at our garden fence and the resulting seeds
germinated readily this year. The plant was raised from wild seed collected by Vojtech Holubec
at Villa Pehuenia in Argentina, elevation 1500 m.
The plant is hardier than I thoght, the unusual severe late  frosts in  this April did not harm it
at all.

Picture Nr.4 shows a seedhead in September last year

[Martin Sheader]

Rudi, nice plant. We also grow Mutisia spinosa - it has now almost reached the top of a gingko tree. It can be difficult to prune. If you cut back into the old brown stems it doesn't always regrow. We also have it seeding into a nearby raised bed.
Last year we planted a Mutisia oligodon, growing through a Berberis empetrifolia but it has not yet flowered. We have photographed this species in the wild - it is low growing (compared with M. spinosa) and has neat pink flower.  We have seen it growing on the eastern side of the Andes in steppe conditions. The images below were taken in Chile last January. The plants are growing through spiny cushions of Mulinum spinosum in Las Lajas National Park at about 1500m. They are growing in volcanic cinder (scoria).