Sunday 25 January 2009

Tacsonia ignea


Tacsonia manicata
Paxton, Flower Garden Displayed

A magnificent terrace extends along the whole front of the palacio, and is formed by a high wall, built on the steep slope of the lawn, and surmounted by a handsome balustrade, little, however, of which can be seen for the profusion of beautiful climbers, which cover the wall and intertwine with the balusters, so as to form a floral drapery of exceeding loveliness. Amongst these climbers, chief in beauty, was Tacsonia ignea, a plant which, as far as I have been able to ascertain, is not found in our gardens. Its flowers are the same bright colour as our Tom-Thumb geraniums, and the effect of thousands of them, thickly scattered over the thick drapery of thick dark green foliage, was beautiful in the extreme.

Tacsonia ignea hort. ex Mast.
Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 27: 629. 1871.

The Gardeners' Chronicle uses this name interchangeably with Tacsonia manicata

L. H. Bailey, 1919, THE STANDARD CYCLOPEDIA OF HORTICULTURE
Passiflora manicata, Pers. (P. ignea, Hort. Tacsonia manicata, Juss.). RED PASSION-VINE. Fig. 2775. St. nearly terete, finely pale-pubescent: Ivs. coriaceous, 3-lobed to about the middle, finely serrate, the lobes broad- oblong, pale beneath; stipules ovate, 1 in. across, notched, clasping: fls. solitary on slender axillary pedun- cles, brilliant scarlet, 4 in. across; perianth-tube 3^m. long, inflated and 10-ribbed at base; outer corona of many short blue filaments, some of which surround the column; inner corona of an inflexed membrane: fr. egg-shaped or almost globular, yellow-green, the skin thick; seeds many in a thin pulp. Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. B.M. 6129. G.F. 7:265 (from which Fig. 2775 is reduced). R.H. 1903:356. This plant seems to be grown with difficulty in greenhouses, but it is at home in the open in S. Calif., climbing into the tops of trees and blooming profusely, making a brilliant display. It grows with great vigor and rapidity, renewing itself freely from seeds.

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