Hi Tentaki:
Yes, you are right about TianCao/Amakusa (天草). There is a clone name Amakusa Nisshin (天草日進), the plants are bigger, better marginal variegation (覆輪), the flower stem is taller, and has a bigger flower. When I visited a shunran nurseries in Japan last fall, I asked the owner about this. He told me that these are 2 different varieties. Since Amakusa(天草)is a City in Japan, I suspect that it just indicates that this "clone" is discovered around Amakusa. Since there is nothing too outstanding about this clone, they didn't really give a "special" name. Lastly, I have never seen this clone in Japan or any of the Japanese Shunran books/dictionaries I have in my collection. This clone is only sold by the Taiwanese. When it is sold by the Taiwanese, I always ask myself the origin (I am Taiwanese and I don't buy anything from them)
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