Gesneriads at the Missouri Botanical Garden

The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the most well-kept botanical gardens in the US with premier plant collections and one of the best non-university botanical research institutions in the world. To me, the best feature of the garden is the Climatron, a futuristically designed greenhouse that encloses a very nice collection of plants.

I recently visited family in St. Louis and one of the must visit places is the botanical garden. This time, I kept my eyes open for gesneriads. This is a shot (not of gesneriads) but still a pretty view from the inside looking up. The plant is Clerodendron splendens.

 A prominent and beautiful feature in the garden is a large rock from which a waterfall pours from above. Visitors walk beneath part of the rock and be greeted by the sounds of rushing water, feel the cool mist, and a beautiful vine of an Aeschynanthus species hanging from above.

This vine seems to be in perpetual bloom, no matter what time of year I visit! 

Seemannia sylvatica hanging off a rock as they would in their natural habitat. How cool!

A closeup of Seemannia sylvatica.

 An unknown species of Nematanthus. I wonder what it is?!

Aeschinanthus 'Greensleeves'. It look me a while to find this plant because it was hidden behind a bunch of other plants. I suppose since it isn't a species, they did not want to display it prominently.

Looking right into the face of Aeschynanthus 'Greensleeves'.

Well folks, there you have it! While it was nice to see these gesneriads in the Climatron, I don't quite understand why more gesneriads are not featured. They would be so easily maintained in greenhouse conditions such as these and would thrive. Note to botanical gardens out there: add more cool gesneriads to your collection!

Guest blogger

Nhu Nguyen

Hangin' Around: Aeschynanthus 'Purple Star' and Nematanthus 'Tropicana'

 So.... what do you do with the hanging baskets you put outside during the summer season? You can bring them in and make them feel like they are back in the wild by hanging them in their own tree.

Actually, this works pretty well if you keep any of the larger potted plants in your house. You don't have to hang them, you can arrange them around the bottom of the taller plant's pot and use them as a soil cover to make the pot look good. It's also easy to water everything this way too.

It seems that there is enough light by a patio door to get most of the "Lipstick" type vines to bloom.

Nice to see a little color in the colder months too!

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Aeschynanthus marmoratus Up Close and Personal!

This is a flower from an Aeschynanthus marmoratus!


It's a really rather cool flower but I suspect sometimes overlooked because it's primarily green with it's rather flashy colors left to just the interior lip of the flower.


This is a close up shot of the calyx when it's been detached from the petals. It's got a nice bit of bright red hair on it.

These are close ups of the pollen sacs and how they are connected, as is characteristic of many in the family Gesneriad.











A bit closer shot. Interesting surface of the anther here.

These following pictures were of a leaf that I snapped to see what was inside. Sometimes the stringy stuff (vascular tissue) doesn't break right off and you get to get a closer look at it. What follows was completely unexpected and one of the coolest things I've accidentally found looking through the scope.

The "fibers" were quite transparent and looked sort of spiraled, so I got come closer looks at them.

The fibers were formed in a spring-like spiral. I really like this!

A little flower dissection happened because I wanted to see if there was anything interesting going on where the stamen were attached to the flower tube (petals). The razor blade shows the point where the filament attaches. I thought this would be cool and it turns out to be a non-event. I guess the vascular tissue was really much cooler. 

The pictures do show how the cells are pigmented to give the flower it's coloration and also how they align in the tissue. Too bad I can't get more magnification to see if we could see any of the individual cells.....

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Streptocarpus 'Neil's Getcha', Aeschynanthus humilis, Petrocosmen barbata, Episcia 'Pink Brocade' and other great stuff!

 Janice has some pretty exciting things to look at when she goes down to her plant room.

This is a lovely selection called Streptocarpus 'Neil's Gotcha'. Really striking flowers with ruffles and spots and a nice bold color.

 Here's another lovely strep with just the right contrast between the leaves and the color of the blossoms.

 This little Aeschynanthus humilis has been blooming for about four months. It seems to do well under lights and with a mat watering system for it.

Another pretty Strep with big bright flowers.

 If purple is more your color there are some of them too!

 This was a really eye catching bloom. Again, huge flowers and nicely contrasting leaves.

 These little cute things are a Petrocosmea. They're Petrocosmea barbata.They stay quite small and as you can see have a center that is somewhat compact. The plants go through a cycle when just the tight center is left in the pot looking a bit like a pine cone. When conditions again are favorable (or the plant decides it's time) they send out the rest of the lovely lush leaves to make the small but rather dramatic rosettes which you see here.

This is one of the very pink Episcias. I think it's 'Pink Brocade'. What a beautifully grown and striking plant. I hope that Janice turns her back next time I'm lucky enough to see her collection and perhaps this one, tiny, small (well, large) bowl will mysteriously vanish off of the shelf!!!

Thank you very much to Janice for sharing the pictures with us! Comments??? Congratulations???

Aeschynanthus speciosus

The Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI has a lovely "little" gesneriad that was in the entrance to the conservatory.

Of the 10,000 square feet of tropical goodness, 80 families are represented there with over 500 different species of plants to see.

This Aeschynanthus was spectacular. The photo doesn't do it the proper justice.














The individual blooms were particularly showy with the sun shining on them. What sort of pollinator do you suppose pollinates this?

Comments won't harm you... try one, they're fun.

Aeschynanthus marmoratus

 Here's a nice little Aeschynanthus that is usually grown for it's foliage rather than it's flowers. But, when you look at the blooms, Aeschynanthus marmoratus really has a pleasantly colorful flower.

It's got the chartreuse tubes with the bright orange edging with deep maroon patches that match the spotted undersides of the leaves... and pink anthers.

Anyway, the leaves are nicely marked with stripes, which lends this plant to sometimes referred to as a Zebra Basket Plant.

It's got a forgiving culture and prefers warmer, moist growing conditions.

What's Bloomin' in the plant room now...

Here's Aeschynanthus 'Mona Lisa'. This was the plant that showed up as a 'show and tell' at the March meeting.

It's starting to bloom nicely now. I would love for a couple of club members to post what they have blooming this week!

Click on the photo to enlarge it.