Sinningia richii

1. Leaves
2. Inflorescence
3. Calyx
4. Hairs
5. Corolla
6. Pollen
7. Taxonomical Position and Hybridization
8. Feature table
9. External link
10. Publication and etymology

Thanks to the generosity of Bill Price, I now have a plant of this species.

Warning: the description below applies entirely to this plant, so it may not apply to Sinningia richii in general.

Leaves

My plant has three pairs of leaves, which are plain green with no reddish tinge either on the top or the reverse.  The largest leaves are about 6 inches [15 cm] long and 4 inches [10 cm] wide, but the pot is small, so the plant presumably could be bigger if grown in a larger pot.

Inflorescence

This plant is [as of November 2006] blooming from the axils of the four upper leaves, in the standard pair-flowered cyme pattern.  Although the leaves have no sign of red, the pedicels are dark red, as are the edges of the calyx lobes.  When the flower drops and the calyx lobes age, they turn a very dark red.

Calyx

The calyx is a five-pointed star, and the calyx lobes (particularly the upper three) are spread wide from the corolla.  The calyx lobes, all being in the same plane, present almost a flat surface.

Hairs

The pedicels, the calyx lobes, and the outside of the corolla are all covered with hairs up to 3-4 mm long.  These are longer than the hairs on the leaves themselves.  There must be a reason.

If you know it, speak up.

Corolla

The picture above shows the corolla from below.

The corolla is just about 2 inches [5 cm] to the tip of the lower lobe.  It is tinged with green until it opens, but thereafter is mostly pure white, except for a somewhat shiny greenish "globe" (about 8 mm in diameter) attached to the calyx.

The "globe" opens out into inflated pouch with an opening about 1/2 inch [1.2 cm] wide.  When fully open, the five corolla lobes are almost in a plane, with only the lower lobe extending a little forward.  The lobes are very similar in size, about 1 cm long and 1 cm wide.  The width across the face of the flower is about 3 cm.

There are markings on the bottom half of the interior of the corolla: longitudinal stripes alternating with a string of elongated dots.  The color of these markings is somewhere between purple and brown.  The markings are mostly confined to the tube and do not extend to the corolla lobes.  They are somewhat more conspicuous than in the picture (where they are a little washed out by the flash), but it is likely that they are much more conspicuous to bees, the probable pollinator of this species.  White flowers (as in S. eumorpha) are usually "bee violet", reflecting strongly in the near ultraviolet, which is invisible to human eyes but readily visible to bee eyes.

In the picture above, a red object is visible in the opening at base of the corolla.  The picture at the right shows the corolla from underneath, cut open lengthwise.  In this view, the red object seems to be the rudiment of a fifth stamen, only a few mm long.  As in all sinningia flowers, the stamens are attached at their base to the corolla tube, so they fall with the corolla, leaving the female parts of the flower behind.

Pollen

So far I have not gotten any pollen from a flower, so I have not been able to self the plant or put its pollen on another plant.  As of August 2008, I'm still trying.

Mildew

In 2007 my plants of this species were all attacked by mildew.  This was the first time I have had a mildew problem, and S. richii was the first species to get it.  As can be seen from the photo at the top of the page, the plants did not have this problem in 2006.

So far [written in August 2008], the most effective countermeasure to mildew on S. richii has been washing the leaves with soap and warm water.  The leaves still show some damage, but not as much as with chemical remedies, which in most cases destroyed the leaves.

Taxonomical Position and Hybridization

Sinningia richii is not particularly close to any other species.  It is a sister species to all the rest of the Corytholoma clade.  As shown in the CrossWords crossing table, hybrids have been made between this species and a few others, but the crosses were invariably sterile.

Feature table for Sinningia richii

External Link

See a picture on Ron Myhr's Gesneriad Reference Web.

Publication

Sinningia richii was first published by Carl Clayberg in 1968.