Escallonia alpina DC.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Escallonia alpina' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/escallonia/escallonia-alpina/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Synonyms

  • E.fonckii Phil, (“fonkii ”)
  • E. glaberrima Phil.

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
cuneate
Wedge-shaped.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
inflorescence
Flower-bearing part of a plant; arrangement of flowers on the floral axis.
linear
Strap-shaped.
raceme
Unbranched inflorescence with flowers produced laterally usually with a pedicel. racemose In form of raceme.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Escallonia alpina' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/escallonia/escallonia-alpina/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

An evergreen shrub of dense habit 2 to 5 ft high in exposed places and often considerably more in width than in height, but up to 12 ft high in forests. It is glabrous in all its parts or with the young stems, leaves, inflorescence axes, and calyx clad with erect hairs of variable length. Leaves mostly obovate to spatulate-obovate, pointed or bluntish at the apex, cuneate at the base, finely toothed in the upper part, 12 to 113 in. long, 18 to 12 in. wide, glossy green on both sides but rather paler beneath. Flowers produced towards the end of June at the ends of side-growths, the lower ones in the axils of leaves, the upper subtended by bracts, the inflorescence being in effect a raceme which becomes progressively less leafy from base to apex and consists of four to twelve flowers. Calyx-lobes triangular, contracted to a slender apex. Petals about 12 in. long, with the linear-spatulate shape and erect pose so common in this genus. Bot. Mag., n.s., t.642.

Native of Chile and Argentina, where it ranges from about 350 S. to the Magellan region and ascends above the tree-line in the Andes. The type, collected by Poeppig in Antuco province, was a downy state of the species, while the name E. fonckii, by which the species has hitherto been known in gardens, is founded on a glabrous specimen. But intermediate forms occur and only one species is involved, for which E. alpina is the earlier name. It was introduced by Harold Comber during his expedition to the Andes 1925–7 under his seed-numbers 955 and 1178. On an east-facing wall of the Laboratory at Wisley, E. alpina has attained a height of 15 ft. At Kew, where it is grown fully in the open, the habit is low and bushy, as it usually is in wild plants.