Plant in part sun to light shade in coastal gardens and irrigate regularly. It does not like overly rich or heavy soils or disturbance of the root system and may be best kept in large pots with very well-drained soil. Water regularly and protect from frost - most note it not hardy to any frost but we have had unprotected plants weather short duration temperatures at 28° F without noticeable damage.

Barbacenia purpurea is from the state of Minas in Brazil. The genus Barbacenia is named in honor of Luís António Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça e Faro (1754–1830), who was the Count of Barbacena, a a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais, who also served as a colonial governor in Brazil and was an influential patron of natural sciences. The specific epithet is a reference to the plants flower color. It is in the Velloziaceae family with members in South America and South Africa.

This plant has made the rounds - we have received it from several sources, but they all seem to trace back to the amazing plantsman, the late Fred Meyer. It has been offered in the US as Vellozia "Purple III, Minas Gerais" or Pleurostima violacea but we believe that the correct name to be Barbacenia purpurea. Our first plants were grown from seed that came to us from Santa Barbara horticulturist Margie Tyre of Entyrely Awesome Plants in 2005. Margie had purchased the plants as Vellozia sp. from Kartuz Greenhouse, who then listed on their website with the synonym Pleurostima violacea. We also got plants as Barbacenia cf. purpurea from Dylan Hannon, Curator of the conservatory at the Huntington Botanic Gardens and purchased seed offered in the Plantsman's Pocket selection from Ginny Hunt's Seedhunt catalog under this same name. As it turns out this seed from Seedhunt came from Martin Grantham who told us that his plant came from Dylan Hannon. Martin noted that this plant has not been happy in bay area gardens because he thought it not cold hardy enough and that it suffered from pest problems when brought into the greenhouse. It seemed happy outdoors for us here in Santa Barbara while we grew it from 2009 until 2013, so it might be best planted in cooler frost protected southern California coastal gardens We also grew a South African species in this family, Talbotia elegans, (AKA Xerophyta elegans) from the Drakensberg mountains. 

The information displayed on this page about Barbacenia purpurea is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.