This attractive herbaceous perennial is in full flower beside the stream.
The genus Epimedium belongs to the barberry family (Berberidaceae), and comprises approximately 40 species of clump-forming, rhizomatous perennials from Europe and eastern Asia, which grow in woodland, scrub and shady, rocky sites. They have unequal asymmetrical heart-shaped, basal leaves and softly spined margins. At emergence they are almost transparent, but become tough and leathery as they mature. The cup-shaped flowers are borne in loose racemes, or occasionally in panicles, and emerge with the fresh foliage. Named to commemorate Warley Place, the garden of the renowned horticulturist Ellen Willmott, E. x warleyense is a hybrid of the southern European E. alpinum and E. pinnatum ssp. colchicum from the Caucasus and northern Turkey. The leaves are formed of between five and nine ovate leaflets which have gently spined margins, and which are tinged red in spring. Delicate yellow cup-shaped flowers have striking coppery-orange sepals. This, and all other species, grows well in dry conditions in full sun or partial shade.