Remusatia hookeriana

Remusatia hookeriana is a highly attractive aroid from the Himalayas with a distribution that stretches through Himchal Pradesh, Sikkim and Assam into Nepal, Bhutan, Yunnan and Northen Thailand. It grows on mountainsides and in moist forested slopes and glades amongst rocky crannies and crevices and like so many of the Himalayan aroids it enjoys that paradoxical combination of a soil with both excellent drainage and a moist humus-rich content.

Its foliage is a gorgeous and very exotic glossy green, peltate and cordate in shape with an accentuated and elegant tip, its underside turning purplish maroon. 

The stolons that emerge in late summer become aerial, growing vertically so that the tiny bulbils that form there are caught by the fur and hair of small mammals and their distribution ensured.

Very cold tolerant, Remusatia hookeriana can be grown outdoors in a shady sheltered woodland setting in warmer parts of the UK providing that a free-draining substrate and a thick mulch is supplied. Its foliage dies down in autumn as it enters dormancy and reappears late in the Spring. A humus-filled nook amongst the rocks or tree-stumps is ideal and it lends itself to epiphytic planting. Alternatively it can be lifted over winter and kept dry until planting out the following spring. It also does well in pots which can be brought in for the winter.