Androsace minor ACE 2498.

The attractive androsace illustrated here was grown from seed collected by the Alpine Garden Society China Expedition 1994. This expedition worked in collaboration with the Kunming Institude of Botany to study and record the alpine plants to be found in north-western Yunnan and south-western Sichuan in China.

This species has not been studied in cultivation previously and can now be seen to be quite distinct from A. rigida with which it had been associated. The leaves are of one form throughout the seasons and grow continuously in cultivation from the small green overwintering rosette to attain around 15-20 mm late in the season. The upper and lower leaf surfaces are largely hairless with cilia on the leaf margins. The flower umbel is carried 6-9cm above the leaf rosettes and has usually 8 flowers which are white with on ochre yellow eye which turns bright red with age.

Small numbers of these plants are now in cultivation among members of the Androsace Group who are hoping for seed formation to allow this lovely plant to be more widely grown.

David Mowle