Derek Butcher 01/12.

Quesnelia ‘Red Face’ by Derek Butcher 1/2012
We got this plant in the 1990’s from Queensland and it had Quesnelia imbricate on the label.
Has it flowered in the intervening years? I don’t know but I thought I had an odd looking Q. Liboniana until I saw the label.
Now you know why I am calling this plant – ‘Red Face’ as well as the fact that it has red blotches on the leaves. Other differences from Q. Liboniana are the absence of stolons and red scape bracts. In fact, much closer to Q. Liboniana than Q. Imbricate.
It is therefore possible that when the person collected seed from a Q. Imbricate they did not guess that Q. Liboniana was around, but that is only supposition. It is safer to call the plant a Q. Liboniana hybrid. So if you have a plant called Q. Imbricate just remember a ‘Red Face’. Plant is about 15cm wide and 20cm high, flowering to 35cm high.

What intrigues me is that grower of all oddities, Ross Little of Pinegrove Nursery denies all knowledge of this plant and admits that this plant may well be an improvement on the ubiquitous Q. Liboniana.

Some of you may well be growing a plant called Q. Imbricate but if it flowers like this you too may blush with embarrassment.

Interestingly, I have no photo of a Q. Imbricate growing in Australia and show photos by Wes Schilling in California.