Lottah Nursery Tasmania, Australia
Native of China and extending to Tibet, Daphne tangutica is reported to be similar to D. retusa with which it is often confused; they may indeed be conspecific.
This is a spreading evergreen daphne which starts producing small numbers of flowers in terminal clusters two weeks before D. odora and continues into September. There is a secondary flowering in late January extending into June.
Flowers: purplish buds; perianth tube 10 x 4 mm, purplish; outer lobes extending 23 mm across, inner lobes somewhat shorter; lobes broadly triangular, creamy white on inner surface but purplish on exterior. There is mild fragrance.
Fruit: fleshy orange-red drupe ripening over an extended period.
Leaves: leathery, about 50 x 17 mm, dark green on top surface, lighter below; almost sessile
Mature plants of tangutica in the wild may exceed 1.5 m in height but under cultivation it is usually a smaller shrub to 1 m or so.
(click on thumbnails for larger images)
50401-4645 (1, 1, 10, 96)