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Epimedium wushanense

Wushan Fairy Wings

Plant Type:

SHADE PERENNIALS

Epimedium wushanense – This Barrenwort or Wushan Fairy Wings is loaded with extra-large flowers, each as much as 1.5” in diameter. Creamy white spurs accompanying each lovely light yellow cup in spring. A well grown specimen may have as many as 100 congested flowers clustered on short stems. Leaves are equally interesting, each as long as 10 inches long by 3 inches wide replete with unusual spiny edges. New leaves often emerge with a bronze overlay which settles back to solid green in summer. This is a fantastic endemic from eastern Sichuan's Three Gorges area in the Wushan Mountains, China. Morning sun, dappled to open shade in fertile, draining soil. Drought tolerant once established. Established pot grown plant from division.


Height:

24 in

Spread:

36 in

Colors:

Pale Yellow

Zone:

5 to 9
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Characteristics and Attributes for Epimedium wushanense

Season of Interest (Flowering)

  • Spring

Season of Interest (Foliage)

  • Spring / Summer / Autumn / into Winter

Light

  • Morning Sun / Afternoon Shade
  • Shade
  • Dappled Shade

Attributes

  • Natural Garden
  • Border
  • Collector Plant
  • Drought Tolerant
  • Rock Garden
  • Edging

Growth Rate in the Garden

  • Medium

Soil

  • Fertile
  • Draining

Origins

  • China

Propagated By

  • Division

Genus Overview: Epimedium

The Barrenworts have received much attention in recent years and deservedly so. They come in many differently-colored flowering forms sporting delicate, dangling spider-like blossoms in spring. Some, as in E. sempervirens, are virtually evergreen; many others deciduous with delicate kidney-shaped leaves on wiry stems. The foliage on many cultivars in our USDA zone 5b (-15F) remains handsome until the winter solstice supplying 2 to 3 seasons of interest, some even provide golden to purple-bronze autumn tones. Slowly, gradually, they form a ground cover in part to full, open shade in fertile soil. The Barrenworts or Bishop Hats exhibit fair drought tolerance and are well-behaved members in part to open shade. They work well in herbaceous borders, woodland gardens or down-facing shrubs. Epimediums are members of the Berberidaceae and are of Asian origin. Once established they exhibit fair tolerance to dry shade. All of the following are pot-grown divisions from our plants.