Sinningia cooperi
The Sinningia that Sprawls and Clambers

1. Feature table
2. Resupination
3. Publication and etymology

This species is epiphytic -- that is, it grows in the notches along tree branches and trunks where organic material accumulates. The stems sprawl along the branches or hang from them. This picture, albeit not at all artistic, shows the habit.

The flowers are some of the largest in the genus Sinningia.  The densely fuzzy flowerbuds are also mighty attractive.  One assumes that this species is pollinated by one of the largest hummingbird species.

Sinningia cooperi is one of the "Galea Group", a cluster of closely related species which all have flowers with an overhanging upper lip, formed by the two uppermost corolla lobes.  Because of their size and their brilliant red, S. cooperi flowers are the most dramatic in the group.  This species is also easy to grow.  Were it not for the somewhat inconvenient growth habit, this would be one of the most popular sinningia species.

Here is a cluster of flowers and flowerbuds at the end of a long, sprawling stem. 

Resupination

One warm summer afternoon, I was relaxing on the glider looking at S. cooperi, with its flowers brilliant red in the sunlight, held out horizontally from its pendant stems, and thinking how inviting those flowers must be to a hummingbird, when it suddenly occurred to me:  the flowers had to be resupinate!  The stems grow downward, but the flowers are right-side up.  That means that the pedicel must do a 180-degree twist as it develops, in order to bring the flower into the correct orientation.

This twist is called "resupination".  See the resupination page for the definition and some illustrative diagrams.

Although S. cooperi usually has resupinate flowers, it is not obliged to be that way.  I have a plant of S. cooperi which grows upright, and has nonresupinate flowers, showing that the plant orients its flowers by gravity.

Feature table for Sinningia cooperi

Publication

According to the AGGS Sinningia Register (1988), this species was first described by "Paxt." (perhaps Joseph Paxton, 1803-1865) as Gesneria cooperi in 1834.  It was transferred to Sinningia by Wiehler in 1975.