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Fabiana imbricata
Pichi pichi is a frost-hardy, heath-like evergreen shrub from the dry foothills of the southern Andes, forming a mound up to about 2.5 m wide. Its key to growing is full sun and very well-drained soil, since it dislikes wet roots.
Fabiana imbricata, vernacular names pichi, palo piche, or false heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae. It is native to dry upland slopes in the foothills of the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina. Growing to 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) tall and wide, it is a frost-hardy, heath-like evergreen mound-forming shrub. It has needle-like leaves and small white, tubular flowers in early summer.
The upright form F. imbricata f. violacea, of horticultural origin, bears masses of pale violet flowers. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
F. imbricata foliage has traditionally been employed as a diuretic and digestive, and has been proven to have a dose-dependent gastroprotective effect, in studies evaluating the main sesquiterpene of the foliage. Interest in F. imbricata has extended into the development of in vitro culturing of the plant’s tissue for the harvesting of secondary metabolites for further research.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Fabiana imbricata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
