Description
Tigridia chiapensis makes one to three, quite narrow, ribbed leaves and a 30-45 cm tall stem carrying between one and three flowers (some say up to six but we have never seen that many), each 5 cm across. The flowers face upwards and have broad white petals with purple spotting at the base. The perianth cup sits in the centre of the flower and is yellow, leopard-spotted in purple or purple-brown. Flowering is throughout the summer and though each bloom lasts but a day, they are produced in succession.
There is a lot more information on Tigridia in our customer resources which become visible after your log into your account, but basically this is a native of upland marshes (1,800-2,700 m altitude) and wet meadows in Chiapas province of S. Mexico (right against the Guatemalan border). The high altitude and wet habitat means that in cultivation this becomes an easy plant if grown in full sun, in a fertile soil with plenty of water in summer.
It is winter-dormant and can be dried-off and stored then if wished though it has been suggested that it may over-winter successfully in the ground if a well drained site is chosen.
The advance of agriculture and the draining of marshes is endangering an already uncommon endemic species, described only in 1968, by Cruden.
