Mystery Corydalis

[johnw]

This was grown as Corydalis flexuosa Award of Merit form which was supposed to be blue. Ken thought it flowered once and was blue but was a weak plant. This year it  grew prolifically and bloomed yellow. Is is possibly that it has crossed with C. cheilanthfolia and self-sown?  Colour a bit darker than shown. No sign of C. cheilanthifolia in the foliage.

johnw

[Lori S.]

Looks like Corydalis lutea.  Corydalis flexuosa seems to have more elongated leaf segments (aside, of course, from the blue flowers  ).

[Lesley Cox]

C. lutea to me too. Here at least, it is an annual.

[Lori S.]

C. lutea to me too. Here at least, it is an annual.

Interesting... C. lutea seems to be a perennial here, at least a short-lived one, at any rate.

[Darren]

It is certainly perennial in the cracks of (limestone) garden walls in our area.

[Martin Baxendale]

Definitely lutea. Fully perennial in my dry hillside garden. As you say, John, no sign of cheilanthifolia in the foliage.

[johnw]

Thanks all.  So now where on earth did the C. lutea come from?   Could a seed in the nursery pot of one of the nearby plants have sat dormant for years and suddenly spouted?

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

I guess it could have, I had a seedling of C. malkensis appear in another species pot, about 3 years after the original was sown. I'd been told there could be a few malkensis seeds in with the other.

[Alan_b]

In the UK this lovely Corydalis is almost completely overlooked because it grows like a weed and sows itself into cracks and crevices, including those on walls as Darren mentioned.  But I have tried and failed to introduce it into my garden.  There is a short summary here in the context of UK wild flowers http://www.ukwildflowers.com/Web_pages/pseudofumaria_lutea_yellow_corydalis.htm.  Any soil imported from the UK might contain seeds of this plant.

[Brian Ellis]

It grows like a weed in our garden, but it's easy to remove

[Darren]

In the UK this lovely Corydalis is almost completely overlooked because it grows like a weed and sows itself into cracks and crevices, including those on walls as Darren mentioned. But I have tried and failed to introduce it into my garden.  There is a short summary here in the context of UK wild flowers http://www.ukwildflowers.com/Web_pages/pseudofumaria_lutea_yellow_corydalis.htm.  Any soil imported from the UK might contain seeds of this plant.

Me too Alan. Everyone else around here seems to have it, and we have similar seemingly ideal walls, the other mandatory wall plants in profusion. (Campanulas portenshlagiana and poschkarskyana (apologies if misspelt) and Meconopsis cambrica)

I hope it just turns up by itself one day!