Veratrum formosanum

From Taiwan, comes this RARE Lily relative, attractive perennial with narrow, 1" wide lanceolate leaves with prominent veining in clumps of loose rosettes and starry reddish-purple blooms with charcoal grey centers in terminal panicles on erect contrasting light grey-green stems in late summer for many weeks. They come up early and are interesting right from the start! The blooms aren't quite as dark as 'Nigrum' but it's much less attractive to slugs according to some! Tough to grow from seed and 3 years to bloom if you're successful, hence the scarcity in the trade and the price. Why "dwarf"? Veratrum nigrum and V. album reach 5 feet in bloom! Used extensively in Oriental folk medicine BUT it's poisonous if members of your family or social group are prone to eating plants BUT it has excited the medical community and is being tested for the the effects of its remarkable compound, resveratrol (RSV), which could have tremendous potential as a chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agent in clinical medicine for potentially dozens of conditions. (Keep in mind the great heart medicine Digitalis is also poisonous so it's possible to be poisonous and yet medicinal in the right hands and conditions.) Of course, reservatrol is also in red wine if you're having Chianti or Bordeaux tonight!

For all those of you who have little gardens and/or patience, this one stays short and blooms within one or two years of planting. The flowers are not quite as dark as V. nigrum, but still a dark shade of maroon. Prefers a moist soil.