Ipheion uniflorum (Tristagma uniflorum)
Family: Alliaceae | Origin: Argentina, Uruguay
The areas with Mediterranean climate in the world are characterized by a relatively short, cool and rainy winter and a long, hot and dry summer. In these areas there are many geophytes – bulb and tuber plants that go into summer dormancy every year.
In Israeli gardening we use many such plants from the Mediterranean basin and a large number of geophytes from South Africa – where there are more than 2000 species of geophytes.
Fewer are the geophyte species that come from the Mediterranean climate in South America that exists in the north of Chile. In northern Chile (and northern Argentina, where the summer is not completely dry, but is less wet than the winter), grow several species of the genus Ipheion.
Botanists have debated for many years about the name of the species Ipheion uniflorum;
Some call it Ipheion uniflorum or Tristagma uniflorum and in the past it was called: Brodiaea uniflora, Milla uniflora, Triteleia uniflora and we will stop here…
Plants of the this species arrived in Israel decades ago and have since disappeared from the nurseries, but due to their survival and durability, they have remained and multiplied in several gardens throughout the country.
It is a small plant, 10 cm high and 20 cm in diameter with narrow leaves that have a faint garlic smell. Its many star-shaped flowers stand singly on low flowering stems and are light blue and white with small yellowish stamens – very patriotic and certainly appropriate to the flag of…Argentina. Its common name in English is Spring Star Flower.
It is a small plant, 10 cm high and 20 cm in diameter with narrow leaves that have a faint garlic smell. Its many star-shaped flowers stand singly on low flowering stems and are light blue and white with small yellowish stamens – very patriotic and certainly appropriate to the flag of…Argentina. Its common name in English is Spring Star Flower.
It is easy to grow this plant in all regions of the country (it remains to be tried in the scorching Jordan Valley and the Aravah) and, like most bulbuous plants, it is not picky about soil type.
It is very suitable in small pots, in rock crevices, between stepping stones and even in a lawn. It sprouts a little from seeds but mostly multiplies rapidly and forms a small, dense clump that blooms with hundreds of flowers for a few months and can stay in place for many years.
The narrow leaves begin to emerge immediately after the first rains or during October under summer irrigation and dry up after flowering in May.
Spring Star Flower blooms profusely in partial to full sun for about two months from February and thrives without any irrigation in the wild garden, but also survives summer watering under good drainage conditions (in the wild in Argentina and Uruguay it receives some summer rains).
Over the years Botanica nursery added to the species, which we brought back to gardening from a beautiful Jerusalem garden where it spread and thrived, some more cultivars:
'White Star' with pure white flowers, 'Rolf Fiedler' with slightly wider leaves and beautiful sky blue flowers, 'Tessa', another strain or hybrid which begins to bloom sporadically from December with dainty pink flowers.
So far the plants have not been attacked by pests or diseases.
.From the "plant and forget and you will be very happy in the spring" group of plants
For the Hebrew article about איפיון press here
