Authors: Ruiz   Pav.  

Botanical Description

From 16cm in height but usually much taller. Here is one species that may flower on shorter stems in cultivation than would be average for the wild, if its rooting system is confined. In the wild, stout flexible wand-like stems, clad in upright pointed glaucous and twisted leaves, can compete with coarse scrub and low thicket, even bamboo, to carry the flowering umbel well clear. In cultivation they tend to be weaker and more flimsy and may require some discreet support. Flowers with oblanceolate to spathulate tepals 1.2-2cm long, reflexed, rose pink, the inner uppers having red speckling over pale yellow cross-bands clustered in very short, tight umbels of three to thirty. Central to central southern Chile at 200-2000m. This plant was erroneously distributed under the epithet A. recurvata during the 1970s. It is also sometimes wrongly known as A. recurva.