The Codonopsis clematidea smells like a skunk, the Tulipa toktogulica has a peculiar, elongated bulb and the Fritillaria imperialis is exceptionally tall. But to the horticulturalists who journeyed to remote alpine meadows and forests to find these rare flowers growing in the wild this year, they are nothing less than the “jewels of the earth”.
Now, the seeds from these and hundreds of other wild plants that were collected in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan have entered the living collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
