Holmskioldia sanguinea Retz.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘The plant of the drawing flowered last December at the garden of Comtesse de Vandes, Bayswater; we believe, for the first time in this country.  It had been cultivated in the hothouse; but owing either to the dark cold season of the year, or accidental weakness of the plant, the blossom proved inferior in size and brilliancy of colour to the Indian samples we have seen; though perfect in other respects. […] Holmskiold is the name or title of a Dane, whose botanical productions, in the opinion of Retzius, have rendered it worthy of being communicated to the present genus.  The appellation has been criticized as uncouth to our utterance, but still we suspect it will be more easily pronounced by an Englishman, than the generic one so justly derived from our monosyllable Smith can be by a Dane or indeed any foreigner.  “This very elegant plant was brought originally from China into the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, though native of the interior parts of Bengal.  In the garden it grows to be a small tree if trained up with a single stem, but if left alone the branches spread far around from the base of the stem close to the ground and strike root.  The bark is ash-coloured and tolerably smooth.  The flowering is in the cold season, when nothing can exceed it in beauty.” [Roxburgh]. […] Introduced in 1796, by Mr. Peter Good.  Dr. Roxburgh mentions a second species, found wild in Silhet, and names it scandens, though he doubts its being really distinct from sanguinea, and suspects the apparent difference to lie between the wild and the cultivated states of the two plants.’  [BR f.692/1823].

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.536/1850].

Notes