Cultural notes soil not too dry. woodland conditions work nicely.
Flowers first year from seed sown indoors early.
Species from the Himalayas. Dense flower spikes emerge from spring into summer, from a mound of ferny foliage. The photo above left shows a first-year plant, with just an occasional flower. From any kind of distance, the two-tonedness of the flowers, with their deep burgundy lower lips, is not at all apparent; in fact, the darker tips almost detract from the appearance, giving the flowers the appearance of being past their prime even when they're in full exuberant bloom. So once again, I'm happy for close-up photography and its ability to highlight the hidden beauty of plants that don't flaunt it.
I grew this from seed labeled C. cheilanthifolia, but both the foliage and the flower color were wrong, so I finally re-assigned our plants to C. ophiocarpa. Since first growing it almost ten years ago, the mother plants are long gone, but I still find occasional seedlings – often surprisingly far from previous plants. Not the showiest plant, but I keep it around as a pleasant filler.
Di Thorley Mar 27, 2005 Hello Rob I was directed here by one of the poster on uk.rec.gardening. There is a plant in my garden I grew from seed. Your picture is great. It does look exactly like it except that I will now have to find a picture with flowers to be certain.
Nancy Fischman Apr 20, 2009 I also have a plant that looks like the one on the right hand side of your web page for Corydalis cheilanthifolia. It has the triangular stems with "wings" on them. I can't seem to find another photo or description on the web that matches this. The flowers on the other sites that show images for Corydalis cheilanthifolia show up bright yellow, not the pale yellow tipped in red. If you find out more information about this plant, I'd like to see it posted on your web site. Thanks.
CMK Jun 14, 2010 Very interested to know what your possible C. cheilanthifolia looks like now, at maturity. Does it still look like the one in your picture, or does it now resemble those shown online? I started some last winter (winter sown method). While the plant is big and healthy,the foliage doesn't look quite as serrated and 'ferny' as others. Hoping that will change once it comes into maturity... Thank you!
Ours have continued to look just about as shown in the pictures on this page. I didn't realized I never put up a photo of a plant in bloom, will have do that when it blooms again next year. Still not sure exactly what it is, so for now I continue to call it cheilanthifolia.
Thanks – I agree that ophiocarpa seems a more likely identity, so I've tentatively renamed the page (and, in my mind, the plants).
Seed from '03 trade. Pot at 65F, 40%G 14-21d. Fast-growing.