Hosta rohdeifolia
'Rohdeifolia'
 

This hosta is the focus of some differing opinions. Two forms of it were found in Japan and they were given different names as if they were naturally occurring forms of a single species. Here is a brief summary of the debate (as I understand it anyway).

One of these hostas was known as H. rohdeifolia rohdeifolia. In the book The Genus Hosta by W. George Schmid (1991), it was determined that this plant did not come from the wild but, rather, came from cultivation. Therefore, it was "downgraded" to cultivar status and is to be known as H. rohdeifolia 'Rohdeifolia'. It is not a species.  However, in the The Hosta Handbook (2000), Mark Zilis feels that it is actually the true species, Hosta rohdeifolia.

The other plant was named H. rohdeifolia viridis and was known in Japan as the "green-leaved hosta with leaves like Rohdea". Schmid says that this is the true species, H. rohdeifolia.

Either way, we are talking about a medium size hosta (14 to 16 inches high by 12 to 16 inches wide) with a generally erect form. 'Rohdeifolia' has dark green foliage with a thin, white marginal variegation. The leaves are slightly convolute, oblong-lanceolate in shape. Its pale purple, funnel-shape flowers with light yellow anthers bloom in August.

"Fukurin Omoto Gibōshi, the "(white) margined hosta with leaves like Rohdea," looks like H. sieboldii but is much larger in all respects....A hosta called H. rhodeifolia 'Albo-marginata' is cultivated in the United States; it is not this hosta but H. 'Fortunei Gloriosa'. This is a Japanese cultivar selection of minor importance which has not seen horticultural use in Western gardens."

Mikiko Lockwood in an article on The Hosta Library titled, A Little About Japanese Hosta Terms defines the term fukurin as margined or edged.


   

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