Xanthisma Coloradoense

A rare and extremely beautiful plant bearing disproportionately large flowers which vary in the wild from pink to rose-purple. The leaves are long, spathulate, coarsely-toothed, and densely hairy, whilst the short stems are covered with an attractive grey-white downy pubescence. In the wild it is strictly protected and occurs in small populations in Colorado (western counties) and Wyoming (south-central counties) where the plant's existence is threatened, and where it grows in sub-alpine and alpine meadows. These very few fertile seeds were collected from un-hybridised, alpine-house and garden-grown plants and will be true to type. For the record, it was discovered by Townshend Brandegee (in 1874 with the Hayden Expedition) at about 12,000 feet on the San Juan Pass in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado.