Epimedium alpinum seed

LATIN NAME: EPIMEDIUM ALPINUM

COMMON NAME: Alpine Barrenwort

The alpine barrenwort drifts the low, spreading mat of the wiry stems with the heart-shaped, toothed, green leaves that flush bronze in the spring and the small, nodding, amber-yellow flowers with the four spurred petals that open in the loose sprays through the mid-spring, each bloom hanging from the slender stalk like the tiny lantern. The plant carpets the ground in the cool shade, and it keeps the neat, leafy cover through the year. It stands the cold well, and it likes the shade or the part shade, and the cool, humus-rich, moist soil.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The ground-covering habit of the epimediums has a recognised place in the research on the shade-garden perennials of the barberry family, and the alpine barrenwort appears in the studies of the spurred flower form and the spring leaf flush. The work looks at the way the mat suppresses the weeds under the trees, the seed germination, and the winter survival of the leafy cover. The growers of the cool woodland gardens keep the species in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the shaded garden, the alpine barrenwort drifts the amber lanterns through the mid-spring shade. The leafy carpet clothes the ground under the trees and the shrubs where the grass struggles, it holds the soil on the shady banks, and the foliage keeps the neat, green mass through the season. It grows well in the cool, humus-rich, moist, shaded ground. Dependable, leafy and shade-loving.

To grow the Alpine Barrenwort from seed, sow the seeds over the damp, leafy surface of the tray, then press them into the compost without covering, keep the tray in the shady, cool spot and mist gently, and the seedlings come up in their own good time over the cool weeks.

Keep the tray cool and gently misted, and pot the seedlings on as the little crowns form. The leafy carpet comes within the season or two. Let the young plants settle into the cool, leafy ground, and the carpet will drift under the trees.

Superb semi-evergreen to evergreen  ground cover ideally suited for growing in the dappled shade of trees or shrubs.  Although they do best in a moist, humus rich soil they will adapt to most soil conditions including heavy clay. Around mid-spring masses of dainty amber-yellow flowers are produced. The foliage can become tatty by the end of the winter so in early spring cut away the old foliage allowing fresh clean leaves to come through. Maximum height 45cm with a 60cm spread.