Reineckia carnea
A very rare plant from the Himalayas. Although there's no doubt that the plant depicted here is Reineckia carnea, we can't reconcile our own experience of it with what we read. Our references say there is a single species in the genus, but we have two forms so different that they look suspiciously like two species. The books also say that the plant doesn't flower or fruit well in areas with cool summers, but in our maritime climate, they flower and fruit freely. Go figure. In any case, this is a rhizomatous perennial, evergreen in mild climates, and is an attractive and almost never-seen groundcover for open woodland or around shrubs, in part shade. It also works as a pot plant, and probably would do well in a basket.
Reineckia is an 8" tall rhizomatous perennial herb with basal leaves, forming clumps. Flowers are on very short, almost stemless, very dense spikes, and are such a light pink that one might be excused for thinking them white. They are faintly fragrant. Flowers are followed by bright red berries in warm summers. Grows like a very broad-leaved Ophiopogon. Collected on our Himalayan adventures, and hardly ever seen or heard of, but still not as unusual as the red-flowered form below.
We received a plant labeled Reineckia carnea from another collecter who had been to China. It has strong similarities to the pink form above, but the leaves are only about a third as wide, and are more a medium green than the grey-green leaves of the pink form. The flower is also similar except for the color, which is dark wine-red, similar to another Himalayan flower, that of Leycesteria formosa. Although this plant appears in at least one British nursery catalog as Reineckia, we think it could be a mis-identified species of Liriope or Ophiopogon, closely related genera. For now, we'll just call it a red form of Reineckia.
