A Sweet Green Surprise!

 

Waiting years and years for this giant monstrosity to decide to have any flowers, I finally got the thrill of seeing it bloom in my porch this November in Minnesota.

This Green Goddess of a Gesneriad is called a Paliavana prasinata! It's a shrubby mini-tree is from southern Brazil. When they say it can grow up to 7' tall it is not an exaggeration. The plant likely should have plenty of sun to form a better looking and decently compact shape. With more limited light it likes to grow in a somewhat unkempt, rambling manner.

It is an easy plant to take cuttings from if they are not particularly woody. It grows quickly and will tolerate being moved outdoors during warm seasonal weather and then being brought back in before the temperature drops below 40°F. in the fall and winter. 

There is a very strange property about the plant too. One of my cats acts like a cat acts when using catnip. He will even howl at the plant and leap into the air to knock off leaves and carry them around. Since some of the Gesneriads are known to be hallucinogenic I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it also has some compounds in the leaves that are not really safe around pets. I've had the plant and the pets for over 20 years and neither of them have perished, so I still take the chance on keeping the big Paliavana.

Paliavanas are related to Sinningias but lack the underground tuber. These are also pollinated by bats, among other things, because of abundant nectar and a fairly strong fragrance.

My plant did not produce seeds this year even though I tried a few times to pollinate the flowers. The flowers are quite heavy and waxy and I was guessing they would last quite a long time on the plant, but after about 3-4 days each bloom was ready to drop off. 

I'm looking forward to seeing if I can get it to bloom again by moving it to a much sunnier summer location this year when it is time to move it outdoors. These are a treat to see in bloom!