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Escallonia leucantha Remy

Modern name

Escallonia leucantha Remy

Synonyms

E. bellidifolia Phil.

An evergreen shrub to about 15 ft high in cultivation (taller in the wild state); branchlets downy when young. Leaves obovate to oblanceolate, 12 to 1 in. long, blunt or pointed at the apex, tapered at the base, glabrous except for the downy and prominent midrib beneath; margins finely toothed. Flowers small, white, in short racemes at the end of the laterals, together forming in effect a panicle 1 ft long and 3 to 7 in. wide; flower-stalks short and slender, downy; calyx downy, tube top-shaped, with short triangular teeth; petals about 15 in. long.

Native of Chile, common in Valdivia and Llanquihue provinces; introduced by H. F. Comber in 1927 under his No. 988. But some plants raised from these seeds, and from No. 989, are natural hybrids between E. leucantha and E. virgata, which grew nearby (Comber 981). These hybrids were originally identified as E. bellidifolia Phil., but according to Dr Sleumer this is synonymous with E. leucantha. The correct name for the cross E. leucantha × E. virgata is E. × strict a Remy emend. Sleumer (op. cit., pp. 127-9).


Genus

Escallonia

Other species in the genus