Rechsteineria rutila Kuntze

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Native of South America, probably Brazil, whence it was imported by the Compte de Vandes, in whose garden at Bayswater it was drawn, in September 1827.  A stove plant, growing to the height of 2 or 3 feet, and propagated by cuttings.  The stem is erect, round, and hirsute.  The leaves are opposite, stalked, oblong, coarsely crenated, hirsute, of the same colour on each side.  The flowers are axillary, solitary, erect, with hirsute pedicels shorter than the leaves.  The calyx is inferior, inflated, pilose, particularly at the base.  The corolla is scarlet, about 2 inches long, pubescent externally, in the inside and towards the base of the tube on the outside yellow; its tube is straight, nearly cylindrical, slightly ventricose; the limb oblique, with erect, roundish segments, the uppermost of which is emarginate, and larger than the rest.  The hypogynous glands are two, at the base of the upper side of the ovarium. […] Gesneria was named in honour of the celebrated Conrad Gesner, born at Zurich in 1516, and died in 1565.  He was one of the first Botanists of his age; and remarkable, among other things, for the value he attached to characters derived from the seeds of plants.’  [BR f.1158/1828].  Introduced to Britain in 1825.  [JD].

History at Camden Park

Obtained as seed from the Sydney Botanic Garden, 28th October 1846.  [RBGS AB].

Notes

I am unsure of the relationship of Gesneria coccinea H.Jacquin (1838) to Gesneria coccinea Hort. ex Hanst.