Mitraria

A plant we got from Michael Wickenden at Cally Gardens in Scotland who collected this in Chile. The flowers on this form seem a bit larger than typical as if they need to get any better. Wild orange-red dangling tubular pouches beckon man and hummingbird alike. Can clamber up into trees or kept small and shrubby by a bit of clipping. Sadly Michael died in October 2016 while plant hunting in Myanmar which is a keen loss as he was an uncompromising plantsman who was not afraid to take on nonsensical and misguided bureaucracy whether it was plant patents or ponderous legislation regarding wild and plant seed collection.

Or as we like to say, Lah-go Poo-Yay-Way. Presumably collected near the Chilean lake for which it is named, this uncommon clone is not horticulturally distinct from the Lake Caburqua form but does represent important genetic diversity in this monotypic genus. Scrambling and rambling and climbing woody gesneriad with orange tubular flowers and hardy here in Zone 8. A good wall plant for sure. We brought this home from England after acquiring it from an elderly collector who had numerous treasures which admittedly were staring into the abyss. Happy to say, it is living large here.

We are very fond of this plant from Chile where it can scramble up into trees quite a ways and the branchlets poking out into the sun are studded with glowing brick orange 1.5" trumpets. We've also seen it kept as a loose mound in full sun literally covered in flowers. Evergreen.