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| Category: Perennial |
| Family: Columelliaceae |
| Origin: Guatemala (North America) |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Purple |
| Bloomtime: Year-round |
| Synonyms: [Tradescantia, Hadrodemas, Tripogandra] |
| Height: <1 foot |
| Width: 1-2 feet |
| Exposure: Light Shade/Part Sun |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Medium Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: 25-30° F |
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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. The species 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 have noted plants marketed with the cultivar name 'Safira' that appear to be the same as the species. We received our first stock plant of this beautiful species from Santa Barbara plantsman John Bleck as Hadrodemas warszewicziana.
This information about Callisia warszewicziana displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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