Astilbe glaberrima 'Yakushima'

A choice and very dwarf form of the species in which everything is extremely miniaturized. This makes a tightly packed dumpling of dense, tiny leaves with 4" sprays of light pink flowers. Quite ideal for the damp rock garden or trough as this is an alpine form of Astilbe glaberrima endemic to the mountains of Yakushima in Japan. We were curious as to what constitutes the typical form of A. glaberrima and with a bit of noodling, were able to access online the herbarium sheet of this species from 1922 which is the holotype that was the basis for the original description of the species and we saw that it is indeed, a much larger plant. Plants are such great things to be curious about!