Azara lanceolata Hook. f.

This distinctive species was first named by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1847 and described using specimens collected by Charles Darwin in December 1834 from the Chilean peninsula of Tres Montes. This location, in the Region of Aysén, represents the southern limit of the distribution for A. lanceolata. For a species that is so common and indeed one that is extremely attractive (ranking alongside that of A. serrata and A. petiolaris), it is surprising that the first introduction to cultivation was not until 1926 from a collection made by Harold Comber (Comber 1928) under the field number Comber 801. Interestingly, Lawrence, in his overview of cultivated Azara species (Lawrence 1933), states that A. lanceolata was reintroduced to cultivation by Comber in 1926, however, there is no record of any prior introductions.

It is worth noting that all herbarium specimens of this species deposited at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and made by collectors from the mid-19th century are flowering specimens only. Furthermore, Comber’s voucher herbarium specimen associated with his seed collection number 801 is also a flowering specimen. The date of this collection, 1st December 1926, is too early for this species to be producing mature fruit in its natural habitat; the fruiting season is from late January to March. It is important to mention that some of the locations given by Comber in his field notes (Comber 1928) are not necessarily the exact location of the field number in question; rather, he lists the locations where he had seen a particular species. Certainly this is the case with Comber 801, in which the locations given are Lago Neltume, Calafquen, and Lago Lolog. The former two place names are in Chile, and the latter is in Argentina; however, they are all in close proximity to each other and located within the Andean Lake Districts of these two countries. One assumes Comber revisited one or more of these locations at a later date to make his seed collections and, in doing so, reused his earlier herbarium field number of 801. Seed was sent to Nymans in 1927 and from the successful germination seedlings were raised in the nursery until they were large enough to be planted out in 1929. The established plants first flowered in 1931, the same year that a specimen was exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea show, where it was given an Award of Merit (Cotton 1934). Material from the plants at Nymans was used for the fine illustration published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Cotton 1934). It was prepared by Lilian Snelling (1879–1972), who was considered the most important British botanical artist of the first half of the 20th century (Noltie 2020).

Even though Azara lanceolata has the most southerly distribution of all Azara species and among the highest altitudinal range, it is not necessarily the most winter-hardy; certainly not as hardy as A. microphylla. Interestingly, Comber, in his field notes (Comber 1928), made an early judgement of A. lanceolata, stating ‘doubtfully hardy’; however, in 1931, when his collection Comber 801 was being given an Award of Merit by the RHS, it was heralded as ‘a hardy shrub’ (Royal Horticultural Society 1932). Lawrence (1933) commented, ‘it promises to be the best of the genus,’ although he did go on to note that ‘this most desirable plant survives at Nymans and at Burford, where, however, it sheds its leaves and is unlikely to be satisfactory in the open’. During the last 20 years, there have been over ten new introductions from the wild into cultivation through the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. One collection (accession 19961050) made from the Araucaria araucana reserve of Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta from an altitude of 1300 m has survived at Logan Botanic Garden and Benmore Botanic Garden, where multiple plants are being cultivated in woodland conditions.

There is no doubt that Azara lanceolata is better suited to the benign climate of the western seaboard of Britain and the island of Ireland, where temperatures and rainfall are similar to its native South American rainforest habitats. However, great care is still required when selecting an appropriate planting site to avoid exposure to drying winds. Protected, west-facing aspects or sheltered woodland conditions, especially stream margins, are worth trying and not just resorting to a south-facing wall, which in the warmer parts of southern England is likely to be too dry. Typically, if under stress from exposed conditions the leaves of A. lanceolata will turn black and start to defoliate. However, this type of growth can sometimes be observed in native populations even though the shrubs appear to be growing in optimum conditions (pers. obs.). Daniel Sparler, who cultivates several species of Azara in his Seattle garden, comments that his specimen of A. lanceolata planted in 2003 has made a shrub of 2 × 3 m, and when it was in its prime, it was ‘…the tidiest and most compact of all my azaras…when in flower it’s a stunner and may be the pollen parent for some seedlings that have emerged from A. serrata fruit.’ Lee Jacobson (Jacobson 2006) reports of specimens up to c. 7 m in the Carl S. English, Jr. Gardens in Seattle and that it has been in cultivation at Washington Park Arboretum since 1988.