Rohdea and Aspidistra

James Waddick jwaddick@kc.rr.com
Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:02:52 PDT
Dear Peter & Jude,

	I think you can find quite a few messages in the archives 
about Rohdea. I love it too. My favorite is the narrow leaf form and 
the typical although I have a variety of variegated, too. It has 
proved totally hardy down well past -20F in the open garden here. 
It is a monotypic genus, but a few years ago a Japanese taxonomist 
combined the 8 sp of Tupistra and few other odd genera into an 
expanded Rohdea. I don't think Peliosanthes is closely related.
	Easy from seed and fun to search for variants.

	Aspidistra would be a favorite, if it were hardy here. 
Speaking of flowers, there's a book in Chinese on the genus with 
flowers of a couple Chinese species with bright yellow flowers on 
long stems. Wow! Very un-like more common species of Aspidistra. The 
genus is highly variable and I think at latest count around 90 
species from a few inches tall to 4 or 5 ft !!!

	Neither is represented on the wiki.

		Best		Jim W.

-- 
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
Ph.    816-746-1949
Zone 5 Record low -23F
	Summer 100F +


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