 |
Corydalis ophiocarpa |
 |
| | Ours stay evergreen through the winter, and are quick to resume a lush look in spring. By mid to late April, flowerbuds are forming |
| Family |
fumariaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial (Z5-8) |
| Flowers |
creamy yellow (spring) |
| Size |
18-30" |
| Light |
part shade |
| Cultural notes |
soil not too dry. woodland conditions work nicely. |
From seed  |
fresh seed germinates at room temperature
Flowers first year from seed sown indoors early.
detailed seed-starting info below
|
Species from the Himalayas. Dense flower spikes emerge from spring into summer, from a mound of ferny foliage. The photo above left shows a first-year plant, with just an occasional flower. From any kind of distance, the two-tonedness of the flowers, with their deep burgundy lower lips, is not at all apparent; in fact, the darker tips almost detract from the appearance, giving the flowers the appearance of being past their prime even when they're in full exuberant bloom. So once again, I'm happy for close-up photography and its ability to highlight the hidden beauty of plants that don't flaunt it.
I grew this from seed labeled C. cheilanthifolia, but both the foliage and the flower color were wrong, so I finally re-assigned our plants to C. ophiocarpa. Since first growing it almost ten years ago, the mother plants are long gone, but I still find occasional seedlings – often surprisingly far from previous plants. Not the showiest plant, but I keep it around as a pleasant filler.
|
| | The flowers viewed from a bit more distance |
|
This plant used to grow in our garden, but it slipped away... About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Corydalis ophiocarpa
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Di Thorley | Mar 27, 2005 | Hello Rob
I was directed here by one of the poster on uk.rec.gardening. There is a plant in my garden I grew from seed. Your picture is great. It does look exactly like it except that I will now have to find a picture with flowers to be certain. |
| Nancy Fischman | Apr 20, 2009 | I also have a plant that looks like the one on the right hand side of your web page for Corydalis cheilanthifolia. It has the triangular stems with "wings" on them. I can't seem to find another photo or description on the web that matches this. The flowers on the other sites that show images for Corydalis cheilanthifolia show up bright yellow, not the pale yellow tipped in red. If you find out more information about this plant, I'd like to see it posted on your web site. Thanks. |
| CMK | Jun 14, 2010 | Very interested to know what your possible C. cheilanthifolia looks like now, at maturity. Does it still look like the one in your picture, or does it now resemble those shown online? I started some last winter (winter sown method). While the plant is big and healthy,the foliage doesn't look quite as serrated and 'ferny' as others. Hoping that will change once it comes into maturity...
Thank you!
Ours have continued to look just about as shown in the pictures on this page. I didn't realized I never put up a photo of a plant in bloom, will have do that when it blooms again next year. Still not sure exactly what it is, so for now I continue to call it cheilanthifolia. |
| Derry watkins | Mar 25, 2012 | Hi rob, it is definitely not cheilanthifolia which is much smaller, 6-8", foliage strongly bronze-tinted in sun, and flowers very bright yellow. Looks like ophiocarpa to me, sort of tawny grey leaves, but might be nobilis
Thanks – I agree that ophiocarpa seems a more likely identity, so I've tentatively renamed the page (and, in my mind, the plants). |
- Seed from '03 trade. Pot at 65F, 40%G 14-21d. Fast-growing.
Also started in pot set outside in December; seedlings emerged in late March
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an
ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including
html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
|
