Gesneriad Society Convention 2010: Show Plants

My favorite plant in the show was this Sinningia defoliata from Bill Price's sinningia collection.  It had five leaves, four of them quite large.

The yellow color in this photograph is not accurate.  The photo below shows a much more realistic leaf color.

This picture shows a little of the tuber peeking through.  There will be a closeup below.

This shows the leaves from below.

Here is a closeup of the tuber.  At least three developing flowerstalks are visible, and there are doubtless more preparing to sprout.

In my experience, it is unpredictable whether this species waits until its leaves drop before flowering (the source of the name defoliata).

These buds provoked some discussion, since if they were ruled to be "buds showing color", they would prevent an exhibitor from entering this plant in a gesneriad show's ornamental-value class, while the lack of any open flowers would rule out entering it in a blooming-plant class.  Fortunately, collections do not have any such restrictions.