Neea virens 'Blue Ecuador'

Neea virens is a species of Nyctaginaceae from South America. This small, woody shrub is widespread. Neea virens can be found from Colombia, through Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, to Paraguay, following the Andes in warm and humid to wet lowlands up to the premontane rainforest (0 - 1200m above sea level) on the rainy eastern side of the mountain range.

It grows as a woody shrub, about 1.5 to 2 meters high, in the undergrowth and seems to occur in nature only in undisturbed primary forests and in permanently moist locations, often in the wet premontane rainforest which is characterized by a variety of mosses and epiphytes.

Its striking leaf coloration, ranging from greenish-turquoise to turquoise-gray with a red midrib depending on the light, is not mentioned in the numerous herbarium specimens or in the species description from 1897. The conspicuous orange/red flowers are also not mentioned. On herbarium specimens, the flowers of Neea virens are usually described as greenish, pink, light, or more rarely reddish. We are therefore skeptical whether the plant offered here is actually Neea virens and are selling it as Neea cf. virens for the time being. It is definitely a Neea, but possibly an undescribed species, or perhaps simply a very beautiful and rare form of the widespread N. virens. It is also traded under the epithet "Blue Ecuador".

Although it seems to be quite common in nature and is also widespread, it has rarely been cultivated so far. However, cultivation in a humid and warm terrarium is quite easy, although it grows rather slowly.

You will receive a rooted cutting in a 7 cm pot with new growth.
The cuttings come from our mature mother plant and may already be flowering. The coloration of new shoots is not yet as pronounced, but rather pale green.