Leontopodium
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| Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture |
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Leontopodium (Greek, lion's foot). Compositae. Perennial herbs, all tufted and woolly, of which the edelweiss is perhaps the one flower most sought by tourists in the Alps. It is an emblem of purity. Stems ascending or erect, unbranched except at the very top: stem-leaves alternate, entire: heads small, crowded into dense cymes surrounded by a sort of leafy involucre. About 6 widely scattered species. Edelweiss is still catalogued as a Gnaphalium, but in that genus the style is 2-cut, while in Leontopodium it is uncut. Leontopodium is more nearly allied to our common weed, the "pearly everlasting" (Anaphalis margaritacea), which lacks the dense cluster of star-like floral leavesl, but in the opinion of some has as much beauty as the edelweiss. The edelweiss is a low plant, 4 to 12 inches high, densely covered with a whitish wool, the attractive portion being the flat star-like cluster of woolly floral leaves surrounding the true flowers, which are small, inconspicuous and yellow. The general impression seems to be that edelweiss cannot be cultivated in America. In 1900, however, it was extensively advertised as a pot-plant, and it has long been cultivated in rock-gardens. J. B. Keller says, "It can be grown to perfection in an elevated position of the rockery, in rather light soil and with full exposure to sun. It also succeeds in an ordinary hardy border where the plants can be kept moderately dry in winter." Seeds of edelweiss should be sown about February 1, which gives plants large enough to plant out in permanent quarters about May 1. If planted in good well-drained ground, the plants are sure to make a good growth so that by the middle of September there will be an occasional flower. However, it is not until the following year that one gets a full crop of flowers, so many in fact that it seems to exhaust the plants, which should now receive a good deal of care. Old plants divided early in the fall and wintered in coldframes give very good results, or late-sown seedlings carried over winter in the same way do well. To establish a colony of edelweiss an English writer advises that a few stray seedlings be firmly planted in a narrow chink of rock so placed that a deep fissure of gritty or sandy loam may be assured for the roots to ramble in. Plants in pots may be grown and flowered when the collar is tightly wedged between some pieces of stone or old mortar. The plant is best propagated by seeds, as division is not always successful.
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Species
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References
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Leontopodium. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Leontopodium QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)
