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Deep PURPLE
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Add a touch of royal purple to your garden
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ARGYREIA FULGENS choisy is an attitude specific plant. Whenever you see the silky silvery shrub with its deep purple flowers in the wild, you can be sure that the place is about 3,000 ft. above mean sea level. The flowers bloom in the morning and remain open till noon. The centrifugally arranged cymose inflorescence, having seven flowers, stands up above the lateral opposite branches. This floral arrangement called dichasium makes the flowers showy and gives an exaggerated look of abundance of purple flowers. When cultivated in lower elevations, flowering extends up to three months. Under wild and natural conditions, flowering starts after the pre-monsoon showers and continues for about a month.
Out of the 16 species of Argyreia mentioned by Gamblele in his "Flora of Madras Presidency," 14 are climbers. A.cuneate and A.fulgens are erect shrubs. A.cuneate occurs in higher elevations of 4,500 ft. above mean sea level and is difficult or not possible to grow at lower levels. A.fulgens grows at sea level. The seeds are like coffee berries. Ideally, sow them at the same elevation and transport the seedlings after six months and plant. Raising the plant through vegetative propagation and root-shoot cuttings is uncertain. The plant is tolerant of various types of soil but does not stand water logging.
It looks beautiful even during non-flowering season. Four inch long, two inch wide, elliptically shaped and accuminately tipped leaves have interesting closely placed parallel veins.
J. MANGALARAJ JOHNSON
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