Seemannia sylvatica grown in the shade
Due to molecular evidence, Seemannia was re-established as a distinct genus relatively recently. It had been lumped into a more broadly-defined Gloxinia for several decades prior to that, so it may still be encountered in gardens or garden catalogues as Gloxinia sylvatica.
Of the four species in the genus, Seemannia sylvatica is the only one in widespread cultivation. John Boggan, of Washington, DC, is a plant breeder who has made attempts to change that. Please see his discussion of Seemannia: a gesneriad with commercial potential from his DC Tropics weblog. In the future, members of the easily-grown Seemannia will perhaps be broadly available, at least as bedding plants.
It’s a challenge to discern whether Bolivian sunset is a common name for this species or whether it is a bona fide cultivar that is often misapplied. Still, the term is useful to reveal the species’ South American origins. Seemannia sylvatica is native to Peru, Bolivia, northern Argentina, Paraguay, and southern Brazil.
For additional reading, check out a florid description of Seemannia sylvatica via The Plant Provocateur’s weblog: Smokin’ Hot Electric Lava Drops. Or, to see more images, check out the Seemannia photo gallery via Gesneriads.ca.
Thank you so much for the link to my article and blog! After S. sylvatica, S. nematanthodes is the next most widely available and can be found in several online catalogs (sometimes under its older name of Gloxinia nematanthodes). It will often be found listed as the cultivar ‘Evita’, which is a wild collection of the species introduced through Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
the green UBC bot garden drops down over most of the window and I can’t see how to get rid of it….any advice?
Browser / device / monitor resolution?
Sorry Daniel. It’s a Macbook Pro. However, it turns out that the clock function got disabled/reset to 2015(!) after a session in the repair shop, and now that it is fixed the problem has gone away. That’s a good thing…I had no idea that the clock would be so influential on viewing websites…the New York Times and WeatherUnderground were completely converted to black and blue lists of pages.
Thank you for your response. This is a wonderful site and I am one of the many who are grateful to you.
Whew! I would never have been able to guess or diagnose that one!