Epimedium myrianthum

Barrenwort Berberidaceae

One of those Epimediums that makes you wonder why anyone bothers breeding them. The new foliage is absolutely spectacular, emerging heavily and irregularly mottled in raspberry-red, bronze and green before gradually darkening as it matures. Even without a flower in sight it is a seriously handsome plant.

The flowers are small — very small, in fact — but produced in ridiculous quantities, with branching panicles carrying anything up to around 200 blooms. White inner sepals surround tiny orange-yellow to reddish petals, while the dark outer sepals add a rather nice bit of contrast. It flowers in spring and can occasionally produce a second flush later in the year.

Native to central and southern China, principally Hunan, Hubei and Guangxi, where it grows in woodland, scrub and along roadsides and streams. It was collected in the Tianpingshan Mountains of Hunan and brought into cultivation through Darrell Probst, flowering at Blackthorn Nursery in 1997 before its formal description by William T. Stearn in 1998. Probst subsequently introduced it to horticulture. 

Nomenclaturally, it has had a slightly chequered past: it was previously treated as Epimedium sinense var. pyramidale, and later E. sagittatum var. pyramidale, before Stearn recognised it as a distinct species in 1998. Modern treatments accept E. myrianthum; some subsequent Chinese taxonomic work has also subsumed several names into it. 

A superb woodland plant, particularly where spectacular spring foliage matters as much as flowers.

• Hardiness: H5/H6, approximately -20 to -15°C
• Height: 30–60 cm
• Spread: 45–75 cm
• Flowers: April–May