The name Lewisia comes from Meriweather Lewis, since it was discovered by a botanist on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Clark got the Clarkias, including Elegant clarkia . Rediviva means "that which lives again." Apparently, the plant will still grow if it is dug up and dried and replanted weeks later.
In mountains of the West, lewisias can be found growing in the crevices of bare rock, making them ideal for an alpine scree or the crevices of rock walls and paving stones. Growing from carrot-like taproots, they spread by forming rosettes on these roots; each new rosette develops its own fleshy root. Lewisias bloom from late spring through summer. Siskiyou lewisia has evergreen tongue-shaped leaves, 3 inches long, sometimes with wavy edges. It forms rosettes 6 inches wide, and its flowers bloom in clusters on stems 4 to 12 inches high. Each flower, up to 1 1/2 inches wide, is white flushed or veined with red. There are also pink, clear white and yellow varieties. Tweedy lewisia, another evergreen, bears one to three apricot-pink flowers, about 2 1/2 inches wide, on 6-inch stems. A single plant may produce more than 50 flowers during its blooming season. The broad, light-green leaves, often tinged with red, form rosettes 9 inches wide. Bitter-root, a deciduous plant, produces clumps of narrow, stemless, succulent leaves, 1 to 4 inches long, in the fall. This foliage lasts through the winter and into the following summer, when the almost stemless flowers appear. These are pink or white, 1 to 2 inches across. As the flowers fade, the plant becomes dormant, disappearing until autumn when new leaves emerge.
Get your own Free Home Page