Escallonia bifida Link & Otto

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Escallonia bifida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/escallonia/escallonia-bifida/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Synonyms

  • E. montevidensis (Cham. & Schlecht.) DC.
  • E. floribunda var. montevidensis Cham. & Schlecht.
  • E. floribunda Hort., not H. B. K.

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
capitate
Head-like.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
spathulate
Spatula-shaped.
stigma
(in a flower) The part of the carpel that receives pollen and on which it germinates. May be at the tip of a short or long style or may be reduced to a stigmatic surface at the apex of the ovary.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
synonym
(syn.) (botanical) An alternative or former name for a taxon usually considered to be invalid (often given in brackets). Synonyms arise when a taxon has been described more than once (the prior name usually being the one accepted as correct) or if an article of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature has been contravened requiring the publishing of a new name. Developments in taxonomic thought may be reflected in an increasing list of synonyms as generic or specific concepts change over time.
viscid
Sticky.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Escallonia bifida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/escallonia/escallonia-bifida/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

An evergreen shrub up to 10 ft or more high when grown on walls in this country, but occasionally attaining the dimensions of a small tree in S. America; branchlets glabrous and usually slightly viscid. Leaves 112 to 3 in. long, narrowly oval to obovate or spathulate, tapering at the base, rounded or often conspicuously notched at the apex, minutely toothed, glabrous and bright green above, furnished with small resinous dots beneath. Flowers pure white, 12 to 34 in. across, produced in September in rounded terminal panicles, the largest of which are as much as 9 in. long, and 5 in. wide, but usually much smaller; petals spreading; calyx with pointed, triangular lobes, which are furnished with minute, glandular teeth; style as long as the calyx-lobes, with a large capitate stigma.

Native of eastern S. America, in S. Brazil and in Uruguay near Montevideo; probably introduced in 1827. This is the handsomest of white-flowered escallonias in cultivation, but is best grown on a wall except in the mildest parts, though it is fairly hardy in the open in the R.H.S. Garden, Wisley, in a sunny, sheltered position. It is better known under the synonym E. montevidensis.

This species has been much confused with E. paniculata var. floribunda (H. B. K.) McBride (E. floribunda H. B. K.), a native of the Andes of Ecuador and Peru, which is distinguished from E. bifida (montevidensis) by its pointed leaves, smaller flowers, shorter and blunter calyx-lobes and shorter style.