Azara alpina Poepp. & Endl.

Azara alpina was first described in 1838 by Eduard Friedrich Poeppig (1798–1868) and Stephan Endlicher (1804–1849) based on a plant collected from the Andes of Antuco in Chile. It has remained an uncontroversial species and unlike so many plants described in this era, it has no synonymy! Surprisingly, none of the plant collectors of horticultural note who travelled through the Andes introduced seed of this species for cultivation in western Europe. Not even Harold Comber, who systematically combed alpine habitats of Argentina and Chile for plants of potential horticultural interest, came across it. However, the reason for this may be that most of Comber’s South American botanical exploration was carried out in Argentina where there is only a single location recorded for A. alpina in the hills above the lakes of Epulafquen (Correa 1988).

The first documented introduction of Azara alpina to UK cultivation was in 1963, when a plant raised from seed collected from Termas de Chillán (Región Ñuble) in Chile was cultivated at Wakehurst in West Sussex. Alas, it only survived a few years before it died. To our knowledge no further plants were introduced until a series of collections (from 1992 to 2012) were made from Chile through the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Today the only surviving plant (of five originally planted in 2016) from these introductions can be found growing at Logan Botanic Garden (accession number 20120391*C, Baxter & Gardner 114). Like the original introduction to cultivation, it was also collected from Termas de Chillán in Chile. Previous to this a plant cultivated at RBG Edinburgh’s Inverleith site (19922337*C, Gardner & Page 5015) adjacent to the alpine houses and close to a high wall, thrived for about 20 years before it perished. Plants from this same accession were distributed to ten National Trust gardens in England and Wales however a recent survey found no trace of these plants. Our knowledge of this species in cultivation is still incomplete but considering its altitudinal range of 900–2000 m it should prove to be relatively winter hardy, although the loss of the RBG Edinburgh plant did coincide with the low winter temperatures (at least –10°C) of 2010–2011. However, consideration must be given to the fact that most wild populations will be covered by deep winter snow which provides a degree of insulation against freezing temperatures. Mark Paviour, who has a UK National Collection of Azara, has grown A. alpina since 2017 but has found it to be a difficult species to cultivate and certainly very slow growing. His only surviving plant, which is pot grown, is housed in a polythene tunnel where it regularly flowers and fruits.