Zapatito de la Virgen - The Virgin Mary's Little Shoe

Description:

An herbaceous perennial with a short rhizome.

Habitat:

Found in Argentina and Chile; Patagonia, the Andes and central to southern Tierra del Fuego , in steppe, basalt areas, woodland clearings, pampas, mountain slopes and exposed rocky places, always with well-drained, sandy soils.

Notes:

This species was also described as Calceolaria darwinii, after Charles Darwin, who collected specimens of the plant on his voyage in the Beagle. It had already been described as C.uniflora by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who had his own theory of evolution, which was largely discredited by Darwin's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lam. Cultivated specimen in the Alpine House at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew