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Sinningia hatschbachii has one of the most distinctive tubers (see a picture). Once you have seen one, it is easy to recognize the tuber from then on, due to its color. Most sinningia tubers are brown or tan or beige, but those of S. hatschbachii are a rich beet red.
Sinningia hatschbachii 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.
Sinningia hatschbachii has "determinate growth" -- that is, it has a fixed number of leaf pairs and then blooms from the end of the stem. In my conditions, if often has its allotted leaves by mid-summer, and therefore starts making flowerbuds. "Oh great, it will be blooming any day now," one thinks.
Not so. Time goes by and those buds just sit there, maybe getting a little bit larger. More time goes by.
If the plant gets too dry, the buds dry up.
The plant is waiting for late autumn or early winter, when (perhaps) its hummingbird of choice arrives in its habitat area, or (more likely) all the other sinningias in the area are out of bloom, so there's no chance of hybridization. This late-autumn blooming strategy probably serves for reproductive isolation, thus keeping the species distinct. But it's a pain in the butt for the outdoor grower in an area which gets winter freezes. It's always a race between hatschbachii's timetable and the weather. Will the flowers open before the cold can kill them?
Some years yes, some years no. For the winter of 2006-2007, the answer was no -- see the picture.
| Plant Description | |
|---|---|
| Attribute | Information |
| Growth | Determinate |
| Habit | Stems upright or spreading (if more than one). |
| Leaves | Green, very fuzzy. Three-four pairs. See a closeup. |
| Dormancy | Stems deciduous. Dormancy appears obligate. Tuber is dark red. |
| Flowering | |
| Attribute | Information |
| Inflorescence | terminal cluster |
| Season | Blooms in autumn, winter |
| Flower | Red, tubular, with galea |
| Horticultural Aspects | |
| Attribute | Information |
| Hardiness | 30 F (-1 C) killed the leaves of a plant in my yard, just as it was preparing to bloom [December 2006], but the leaves were not harmed by 32 F (0 C). |
| Recommended? | Yes. S. hatschbachii is like S. cardinalis, but with really nice hairy leaves, a big beet-red tuber, and a compact growth habit. Only downside: blooms late in the fall, so it's not good for outdoor growing in places with frosty Novembers (or Mays, in the southern hemisphere). |
| Botany | |
| Attribute | Information |
| Taxonomic group | The galea group of the Dircaea clade. |
Chautems 1997.