Lippia 'ECOLOPIA2'

Pink Kurapia® blooms on low water in August 2020 at UC Davis. Photo: K Reid

Summary

South Coast Research & Extension Center (South Coast REC/SCREC) is located in Irvine California, this site has a sandy loam soil and plants are irrigated with reclaimed water. UC Davis is located in Davis, California, this site has a silty clay loam soil and plants are irrigated with potable water. More information about the field sites is located in the Nuts & Bolts section.

Pink Kurapia® is the latest in this line of very low, vigorous groundcovers. With the same characteristically shorter internodes of New White Kurapia, Pink created a tight mass of small leaves on spreading stems. 

UC Davis Trial - Davis, CA

Plants bloomed with scores of pale pink blooms in May and June and continued pumping out modest numbers of flowers right through October, which was highly attractive to bees and butterflies. Due to gopher predation in the establishment period reducing the number of replicates, researchers were unable to statistically compare results between treatments. However, due to the high levels of aesthetic quality observed over the deficit season researchers recommend irrigating Pink Kurapia on low water in WUCOLS region 2. Additionally, since Kurapia is used as a lawn analog, it should be noted that this recommendation may not translate to sprinkler-based irrigation systems since some water may be intercepted by the dense foliage.

Proving its utility for low water landscapes, Pink Kurapia is a recipient of our Blue Ribbon™ award for plants that performed at a very good to excellent level on the lowest irrigation treatment.

South Coast REC Trial - Irvine, CA

Some of the data for this cultivar may have been inconsistently skewed by the effects of random gopher activity in the area. All treatments put on significant growth, reaching 2.5X their diameter which was trimmed to be a  1m-wide circle at the beginning of the second growing season. All treatments had an issue with some foliage yellowing throughout the season and issues with an unidentified scale insect caused some additional foliage damage beginning in August. As with previous Kurapia cultivars, Pink Kurapia was highly attractive to bees and other pollinators. There were no significant differences in growth or ratings between treatments and we have assigned this a low water rating. However, it should be noted that foliage, flowering, vigor, and overall appearance were all marginally higher on the moderate treatment with reclaimed water. As such we recommend irrigating Pink Kurapia on low water, and increasing irrigation to moderate in the event aesthetic quality is less than desired.

Basic Info

Growth and Quality Data

Click Here for Complete Data Set - UC Davis

Click Here for Complete Data Set - SCREC

Pink Kurapia® on Low irrigation in August 2020 at UC Davis. Photo: K Reid