Tropaeolum tricolor

Description

Tropaeolum tricolor is a summer-dormant climber which flowers from winter to spring. It has thin, straggly stems growing from a reddish coloured root tuber and extending up to 2 or. The leaves are peltate (with the stalk in the centre), nearly circular with five or six deeply cut lobes. The numerous flowers are borne singly on long wiry stalks growing from the axils of the leaves. They are narrowly funnel-shaped and about 3 cm long. The five sepals are red, orange or yellow tipped with a purple band, and extending backwards in a red spur. The small, greenish-yellow rounded petals have a clawed base. The sepals turn brown after the flowers fall and enclose the two or three, dark brown seeds.

Distribution and habitat

Three-coloured Indian cress grows in the cloud forest on the coastal mountains of northern Chile at 300 to. Further south it grows in inland temperate forests in the central and Los Lagos regions at varying heights. The tubers are well buried and are hardy down to a temperature of about -8 °C and can tolerate short periods of snow cover.

Cultivation

At the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England, three-coloured Indian cress is grown in a frost-free Alpine house. Large pots with good drainage are filled with a loam-based compost and tubers are replanted each September. The plant soon starts into growth and flowers begin forming in the spring and the plant remains in flower for several months. Propagation is by seed or from the tubers which are often formed at the very bottom of a pot or force their way out through the drainage holes. The USDA Hardiness Zone is 8. In cultivation in the UK, it does not tolerate being frozen, so in all but the mildest locations it must be grown under glass. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.{{cite web

Gallery

File:Tropaeolum tricolor 236431369.jpg File:Tropaeolum tricolor 322169341.jpg File:Tropaeolum tricolor 423436171.jpg

References

References

1. [http://www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Tropaeolum-tricolor.htm ''Tropaeolum tricolor'' (three-coloured Indian cress).] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-05-16 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
2. Michail Belov. (2005–2009). "''Tropaeolum tricolor''". ChileFlora.
3. (July 2017). "AGM Plants - Ornamental". Royal Horticultural Society.