Monday, October 17, 2011

Seemannia sylvatica - now in a store near you!

 Look at what awesome plant was just sitting on display waiting to be purchased at Linder's Greenhouse in St. Paul???

This is a Seemannia sylvatica 'Bolivian Sunset', which was formerly called Gloxinia sylvatica (which is on it's current label that it's marked with at the store.)
Text taken from the outstanding website owned by Ron Myhr, the Gesneriad Reference Web:

"The species in the genus Seemannia were formerly placed in Gloxinia until a revision of the group in 2005.  The revision resulted in a number of other changes to the rhizomatous Gesneriads, in addition to the transfer of these species to Seemannia

Seemannia is comprised of four species with primarily red or reddish tubular flowers.  While similarities in appearance do not always indicate close relatedness, genetic analysis in this instance suggests that the morphological similarities do in fact reflect underlying relatedness.

Seemannia is primarily an Andean genus, distributed through Bolivia, northern Argentina and southern Peru.  S. sylvatica is known as far north as southern Ecuador.

The most widely grown of this group is S. sylvatica, which has also contributed to a number of hybrids.  This is a variable species.

All members of Seemannia have rhizomatous storage structures at the root, and typically die back seasonally, usually in response to drought, before re-sprouting when more favorable weather arrives.  They are therefore easily propagated from rhizomes, and can also be easily propagated from tip cuttings.  Under some circumstances, these plants will produce long stringy/wiry aerial propagules, which can also be planted to produce additional plants."


Hope you enjoyed the Gesneriad Reference Web's site, it's owned and maintained by Ron Myhr.

There are quite a few great looking plants at the store currently and some unusual gesneriads such as Aeschynanthus
 that are not simply 'Lipstick plants', Episcias, lovely S. speciosa and perhaps a Codonanthe vine (which I've never seen on sale commercially before.)

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