Tropaeolum (Tropaeolum sessilifolium)

Tropaeolum
Tropaeolum sessilifolium

In their natural habitat: the Andes Mountains, at an altitude between 2000 and 3000 m.a.s.l.

Oh, how exciting, Ursula! I wish I were younger and thinner and tougher. I'd be trekking our local mountains for wonderful pictures. Of course I wouldn't be finding this lovely tropaeolum. I have a soft spot for this genus!

Carol, this species in fact grows at the road-side LOL. I haven't been back to the Mountains since I shot these pictures, but plan to do so in a few more days. We had unusual snowfall in the area last week, so there is nothing interesting these days before the snow melts. I will bear you in my mind should I spot any seeds - there were none on my first visit.

Hugs,

Ursula

I don't know if I could make them grow here anyway, Ursula. I have good luck with nasturtium and Canary Bird Creeper, but they serve as annuals here.

Wonderful! It's exciting to see their natural habitat. I've grown 1 plant from tuber, but it died a few days ago. I'm sad but here I'm very glad to see their flowers! Thank you, Ursula!

Thank you for your kind comment, Dora. Are you sure your plant died, or did it just die back until next season?

Ursula

Hi, Ursula. Thank you for your reply.
Last autumn my tuber woke up and had been growing little by little during this winter. But last week the sprout suddenly dried up. The tuber is still hard, it doesn't seem to be bad.
Is there any possibility that the tuber revives?

I'm almost certain the tuber will revive. In their natural habitat they remain covered with snow during winter (3 to 5 months) and revive in late spring.

Do you have your T.s. in a warm envirnonment (inside the house?). If so, maybe you should cover the whole pot with plastic and place it for two weeks in the refrigerator (not the freezer) to 'reproduce' their cold cycle. I have never found T.s. growing in the wild in more template conditions; they seem to require this cold period.

On the other hand (and I am not an expert!) all the Tropaeolum species I have the chance to watch in the wild (T. polyphyllum, T. sessilifolium, T. ciliatum, T. brachyceras and T. tricolorum) die back at some stage, to come back either in late winter, spring or summer, depending on the species. I would think there is only one main problem that could kill a tuber (or fleshy root as for T.s.): over-watering, causing the tuber to rot. Good drainage is a must. This is a high mountain species and rain is very scarce during spring and summer up there.

Let me know when your 'baby' comes back!

Ursula

Thanks a lot, Ursula. Your comment is very useful for me. I envy you who can walk the mountains and see many Trops. in their natural habitat.
I have many Trops. in my veranda garden (not inside the house)in these years, some of T.brachyceras and some of T.lepidum are flowering. There are many buds in T.azureum and T.tricolor, they maybe flower in March. As you say, they seem to require cold period for germinating(not only from seeds, but also from tubers) and I feel good drainage is the most important thing to maintain them.

I sowed the seeds of T.polyphyllum last autumn. They've been beginning to germinate since January. It's my first experience to grow this species. It seems that they bloom rather late compared with the other species as T.azureum, etc.

I'm glad to hear from you that my tuber have not died yet. I'll try your 'refrigerator method' to it. If there any change appears, I'll let you know. I hope the day will come soon!

Thank you.
DORA777

Dora, would you believe me I have never seen a T. lepidum but in pictures? T. azureum I saw last year, but in a nursery (the only one that reproduces our native flores).

Once you take your T. polyphyllum tuber out of the refrigerator, I would suggest you water it only once and then leave it until it starts to form flower buds.

Part of your success with our native Tropaeolums is that you are in a zone 9b, which is the same zone as their natural habitat (T. brachyceras, T. tricolorum and T. azureum).

T. polyphyllum and T. sessilifolium grow in the same area, only high up in the mountains where they remain covered by snow during 4 to 5 months in winter. The others get some frost each winter, but not to the extent of frozen soil. Remember, these two species bloom during summer!

Do your Tropaeolums produce seeds? If so, do they come true? I'm asking, because I have read that they hybridize very easily if there is more than one species in the area. I know a place with a huge T. tricolorum plant that bears ONLY solid yellow flowers, however does not produce seeds. Some 8 Km farther, there are plants with colour variations such as orange instead of the typical red, others that are solid red (missing the other two colours), etc.

Como to our Roundup in Oct/Nov this year and I will show you!

Hi,Ursula.
I got the seeds of T.lepidum from 'Plant World Seed' in UK. They say 'It has been suggested that this is a form of the equally rare T. hookerianum subsp. austropurpureum.' in their online catalog. The truth is that it's not clear about their origin. Oh, you've never seen them...I wonder where they live.
I'm an amateur gardener, not an expert. My knowledge about Trops depends on a few books or booklets written about them and my own experience of growing them.

Now I understand the season T.polyphyllum and T.sessilifolium bloom. It's summer! It may be difficult to see their beautiful blooming as your pictures, because it's too hot for them in my area.

Wow, I'm surprised at your comment that YELLOW tricolorum exist and they cannot produce seeds! I'd like to see them in my eyes! Do you have any photo? How they increase? By tubers? It's very interesting to hear from you about their hybridization.

Yes, my Trops produce many seeds every year. I always sow some of them in autumn, they grow during winter and begin to bloom in February or March. In my small veranda, I think there are many chances of hybridization. Some bees are busily flying about from flower to flower. In these 3 or 4 years I've found strange matter. I've never seen any hybrid in T.azureum, T.brachyceras and T.tricolor. But in T.lepidum, wide range variety have appeared in their color of flowers...typical pale purple, pink, dark pink and peach,etc. I have no idea about it, but it's interesting. T.lepidum may often cause a variation.

Thank you for your attractive invitation! How wonderful if I could go there and see Trops! It's my big dream visiting your country and seeing Trops in their habitat. Ahora no tengo tiempo ni dinero...But someday in future I hope I'll be there! I don't know whether my dreams come true or not in my life, though. When THE DAY comes, I'll let you know.

Dora

I have seen that on-line catalogue and have a printed version as well. They have an ample variety of Chilean Native plant seeds, even one that is a protected species: Leontochir ovallei (Garra de León -lyon's claw). It is absolutely forbidden to collect seeds, cut flowers or dig tubers in Chile and I do not think the seeds they sell are obtained in the U.K. since this plant is native of the Atacama Desert. I'm enclosing a picture of this Alstroemeria relative.

What are your maximum temperatures during summer? This summer, we have had quite a few days with 35°C - but the only time this year I was in the mountains (when I made the pictures) the maximum temperatures were 32°C.

The Tropaeolum hybridizations I have observed are all spontaneous, in the wild. (BTW, only a few 'loonies' like myself grow wild plants here). Unfortunately, their blooming period is from late winter (August) in the coastal area, to late spring early Dec. in our case), so I can not make any pictures for you until then. The only solid-yellow plant I have found so far grows at the side of a dirt road and is always covered with a lot of dust LOL. However, the colour is not a bright colour as T. brachyceras http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/82534/index.html but rather a dull yellow. This plant (or plants) are a solid mass of over 1 square meter, but not one seed found after really looking hard for them.

However, the other variations I have seen (some 8 Km from the yellow one), are all bright-coloured: some were deep red and had only the yellow 'lips', missing the blue-ring, others were bright orange and had the yellow lips plus the blue ring, etc. All these were spontaneuos hybrids.

My reference books (Dra. Paulina Riedemann and her husband) mention these spontaneous hybridizations between Tropaeolum species.

Come visit Chile - you will never regret it!

Leontochir ovallei:

I know Alstroemeria is famous speceis in Chile and recently we can often see them in Japanese gardening shops. But I didn't know Leontochir ovallei, (Thanks for your beautiful photo! A minute ago, I saw also their ones you had contributed in DG.) is a forbidden plant, and 'PWS' has these seeds.

The maximum temperatures in my area are about 38-C in summer. I'm surprised that it's over 30-C, it's hot enough even in the mountain area. Does it become cool at night? We have 30 days or more sleepless nights in summer, during the period the minimum temperatures are about 27-C. It's the hottest from the end of July to the end of August. Not only the temperature but also the humidity is very high. So many plants die in this season. It is said that the high temperature at night gives large damage to plants.

It's interesting you and some people are growing wild plants in the wild. It's a wonderful environment for the plants! If you have chance in future, please let me show some photos of dull yellow & the other rare colored tricolors blooming, even with a lot of dust! It seems that the roads to reach them are rather bad, do you go there by car? Or on foot? Or both? How long do you walk to go there? Anyway, physical strength might be necessary to observe wild plants.

BTW, I've never gotten any seeds of T.tricolor. I always fail though I try the pollination of these flowers every year. I do the pollination work with a cotton bud. The other speceis produce many seeds by this method, so it's strange. There may be some tricks to success, but I've not found them yet. Do you have any idea?

Thank you for introducing your reference books. I'm very interested in them, but it's hard for me to read them written in Spanish!

The photo is one of my Tropaeolum collections; I bought 3 tubers as T.polyphyllum from a Japanese company a few years ago . But it seems wrong! These are not T.polyphyllum. But yellow flowers are beautiful and smell good. What do you think about this?

Beautiful! Your yellow Tropaeolum seems to be a T. brachyceras. See mine in this link (baby plant) http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/59043/. The seed (or baby-tuber) came in the soil I purchased for my pots (I garden on two large balconies).

I regret as well that Dra. Riedemann's books are only available in Spanish, because they are a gorgeous. She is a retired Anaesthesist(sp?) and her husband a retired peditrician. She is a Landscape Architect as well and teached for many years. It was during these years she experimented with her students the best methods to propagate our native flora, data she includes for each species in her books, with full description of the species, great pictures shot by her husband, etc. and where to find each species. Each one of her books comes with a booklet that indicates even with a map the excursions you can make to find the different species, their blooming time and the difficulty of the task.

It really gets hot in Osaka! At least our nights cool down (even more in the mountains).

Your lack of seeds on the T. tricolorum is probably that you do not have the right pollinator and they do not like artificial pollination LOL. I know of quite a few introduced botanical species here that grow and bloom but never produce seeds.

My excursions have been very limited lately, due to my osteoarthritis (in addition I am morbid obese, which does not help at all) giving me lots of pain lately. None of my friends share my passion for wild flowers, so I am always on my own on these excursions and I do not feel very safe on my feet lately. Sometimes there are a few good days on a row .... Not complaining - just a fact.

Do you have pictures of your T. lepidum?

Your 'Soldadito Amarillo' is beautiful! It's interesting naming!
As you say, it seems to be like mine. However,I also grow this speceis and it doesn't seem to be the same plant. I got the seeds of T.brachyceras from "Chiltern Seeds" in 1999. One of them produced a tuber, I still grow it. I named it "brachyceras No.2". In this season it began to bloom in December and continues to bloom now. This brachyceras No.2 had green calyces at first season, but next season it turned to rather red. A few days ago, the other brachyceras growing from seed just started to bloom. It has green calyces. I don't know why, but it seems that the older the tuber become, the calyces may change to have a tinge of red gradually.

I wish I could read Dra. Riedemann's books! In these days there are many web site of translations, so it may be possible to read them if I could have enough time.

Thanks for the info about pollination of T.tricoloum. At least I find that pollinator of T.tricolorum is not the same as one of T.azureum.

It is serious that the pain accompanies your exploration. Please continue your excursions of the wildflower while taking care of your body.

It's a picture of T.lepidum taken today. This flowers are not typical color and have the stripe pattern in the petal.

The first one being called 'Soldadito' was T. tricolorum, because it has the same colours of the uniforms our soldiers wore during the so called 'Guerra del Pacifico' (The Pacific {ocean} War) 1879-1883 against our neighbours Peru and Bolivia. On the bottom of this link is a replica of the peruvian (white) and the chilean uniforms. http://www.icarito.cl/icarito/2003/909/pag7.htm The other reason is because they grow in a perfect row. Then T. brachyceras simply became 'Soldadito Amarillo' (amarillo = yellow). Our soldiers have not had yellow uniforms so far LOL.

One thing that Dra. Riedemann mentions in her books is that the quality of the T. flowers improves every year.

I am not able to state if they are different species or just mutations (which I am keen to believe) of the same species.

Your T. lepidum is PRETTY!!!! I saw the ones on Tomtom's page (WOW, what a web page!) and yes, they have more lilac in their colouring.

Dora, your experience with Tropaeolums is very valious. Would you be so kind and share it with all of us including your comments in the Plant Files? It would be great to know the size of the tubers (if you have pictures, please post them) and your experience growing them from seeds (indicating your climate). These contributions are really important for all our members.

Ursula

I saw the soldiers' uniforms and understood that T.tricolorum was called as 'Soldadito'. As you say, yellow color doesn't exist! LOL
I found that T.azureum was called 'Soldadito azul' in the site of "PARQUE NACIONAL LA CAMPANA". In this site, there is a funny photo of T.tricolorum. Like soldiers in a row! I have a question... what's 'Pajarito'? The translating software says it's 'little bird'. I'd like to know this species. I think the left hand photo seems like T. rachyceras.
http://www.sanbenito.cl/salidas_terreno/la%20_campana/marcos_campana.htm

Thanks for the information from Dr.Riedemann's book. Such a thing can happen, I think so.

Yeah, I have many pictures of Tropaeolums. I'll contribute them gradually.
Before posting, I have to do spadework, I should look for good pictures in so many stocks!

This is T.brachyceras in my veranda. See their RED calyces!

DORA