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Paraquilegia is a genus of small perennial herbs in the buttercup family, native to high mountains of temperate central Asia, with a few species of yellow-petalled flowers. It is prized by rock gardeners but is notoriously difficult to grow, so it is best treated as a specialist plant.
Paraquilegia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. The genus was segregated out from the genus Isopyrum in 1920 by British botanists James Ramsay Drummond and John Hutchinson. The native range of the genus is temperate central Asia.
Despite the genus encompassing a relatively small number of taxa, there has been significant disagreement among taxonomic authorities regarding how many Paraquilegia species there are and what they are named.
The genus is known as difficult to cultivate. Grown by rock gardeners, the genus is known to require specific conditions, such as north-facing crevice gardens. According to Nold, "the most notable thing" about the genus was how "serious rock gardeners" spoke of the Paraquilegia, in "hushed and awed voices". He compared Paraquilegia's "aristocratic demeanor and tendency to sulk" to Aquilegia jonesii. Nold noted in 2003 that seeds were available from private seed lists produced by "expeditions to the remote – and potentially dangerous – locations that are the haunts" of Paraquilegia.
In 2023, the British botanist Christopher Grey-Wilson reported that substantial amounts of Paraquilegia seeds had entered circulation for cultivation from the Himalayas and western China, though the success rate with these seeds was low. Grey-Wilson noted that members of the Alpine Garden Society, the Scottish Rock Garden Club, and other growers had recently achieved success in cultivating Paraquilegia.
Paraquilegia is found across Asia. Contrary to what the genus's name suggests, Paraquilegia is more closely related to several Ranunculaceae genera native to Asia other than Aquilegia. These include Leptopyrum, Urophysa, and Isopyrum. Isopyrum anemonoides occurs in similar locations throughout Paraquilegia's range, leading to the species being confused for Paraquilegia.
Paraquilegia anemonoides · Paraquilegia caespitosa · Paraquilegia microphylla · Paraquilegia uniflora
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Paraquilegia 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.
