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Hedychium spicatum Salween Valley form images

This very attractive form of Hedychium spicatum originates from a seed collection made at 2,100 m in the Nujiang (Salween) river valley of the Gaolingongshan in the far north-west of Yunnan. The Nujiang is the last major free-flowing river in China, all the others having been dammed. Botanically, the Nujiang Valley is one of the richest in China. This plant was collected from the same hillside as the Hedychium wardii that has entered UK cultivation.

The plant grows to about 1.2 metres and has distinctive, dark olive green foliage with reddish ligules. The flowering stems have rather long inflorescence spikes with many flowers. The flowers are essentially white, turning yellow as they age but there is orange too; in the base of the staminodes and labellum, in the conspicuous stamens and in the corolla tube and true petals. So, although the flowers are rather small for H. spicatum and have narrow labellum lobes they are borne in such profusion as to make a substantial display.

of all the forms I have seen of Hedychium spicatum this one is most likely genuinely to be confused with Hedychium yunnanense. The flowers have a long, straight filament and short anther, which are anomalous characters for Hedychium spicatum and suggestive of Hedychium yunnanense. However, the long-haired stigma, the flower colour and the overall habit of the plant are more like Hedychium spicatum than Hedychium yunnanense. Possibly this plant is a hybrid between Hedychium spicatum and Hedychium yunnanense and it will be interesting to see what selfed seed grows into in the future.  A comparison of Hedychium yunnanense

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last updated 01/10/2008