|
Callisia warszewicziana (Purple Roseling) - An attractive evergreen perennial to 1 foot tall with clusters of rosettes holding broad 8- to 10-inch-long lanceolate sessile green leaves with visible parallel veins and smooth margins. Year round the small three petaled pale rose-purple flowers are produced in tight cymes at the end of foot long or longer peduncles with plantlets forming at the inflorescence branches.
Plant in a cool part sun to semi-shady location and irrigate regularly. Cold hardy to around 25° F. This plant with its attractive foliage and very showy flowers makes an excellent potted specimen or can be used in a special spot in the garden. Seems to thrive in morning or late afternoon locations.
Callisia warszewicziana was first collected in Guatemala but is reportedly also found in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Chiapas. The name for the genus is derived from the Greek words 'kallos' meaning "beauty" and 'lis' meaning "lily". The specific epithet honors the Russian Polish gardener and plant collector Józef Warszewicz Ritter von Rawicz ( 1812-1866) who accompanied the Belgian botanist Louis van Houtte on an expedition to Guatemala in 1845, where he collected many plants. He was a close friend of Carl David Bouché, who with fellow German botanist Karl Sigismund Kunth named this plant for him in 1848 as Tradescantia warszewicziana in Index Seminum in Horto Botanico Berolinensi. Warszewicz later became the chief gardener at the Krakow Botanical Garden. It was renamed Tripogandra warszewicziana in 1942 by Missouri Botanic Garden botanist Robert Woodson, then to Hadrodemas warszewicziana by Harold E. Moore of the of the L. H. Bailey Hortorium in 1962 and finally to its current name Callisia warszewicziana by Kew botanist David R. Hunt in 1983 in the article "New Names in Commelinaceae. American Commelinaceae: XI" in the journal Kew Bulletin Vol. 38: 132.
We received our first stock plant of this beautiful species from Santa Barbara plantsman John Bleck as Hadrodemas warszewicziana and it was featured and sold at Exceptional Plant Auction in 2021 at Ganna Walska Lotusland. We have noted plants marketed with the cultivar name 'Safira' that appear to be the same as the species. We also grow the large bromeliad-like groundcover Callisia fragrans and the low groundcover species Callisia repens.
Information displayed on this page about Callisia warszewicziana is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will 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.
|
