Sinningia gerdtiana

1. Pictures of whole plant
2. Fruit
3. Comparison to S. schiffneri
4. Feature table

We were told we were not supposed to call this Sinningia gertiana, because the name had not been published yet.  But we did anyway.  We thought, ha ha, we know what its official name is going to be, so let's get a head start.

Almost right.

It turns out that the honoree's given name is Gerdt.  Gerdt Hatschbach is the one who led Alain Chautems back to the original collection site after 25 years, putting my 25-minute memory to shame, and the species is named after him.  So we have to change our labels after all.

Mauro Peixoto distributed seeds of this species under the name "S. sp. gertiana" at the 2002 AGGS convention in New Jersey.  Grateful gesneriad growers snapped up the seeds, sowed them, and about a year later started complaining.  "When is this thing ever going to bloom???"

Sinningia gerdtiana requires patience.  I sowed the seeds in July 2002.  Looked for flowers in 2003: nada.  Looked for flowers in 2004: zip.

Or so I thought.

In October 2004, Susan Grose, then president of the AGGS, and her husband George stopped by for a visit.  I showed her my plants, and happened to complain about this big weedy plant over here which never bloomed.

"Really?" she said. "What's this?"

So she saw my first S. gerdtiana flower before I did.

In 2004, that large plant in a 12-inch [30-cm] pot had four flowers.  In 2005, however, it had a couple dozen flowers.  Moreover, three smaller plants in smaller pots have also bloomed.  So the determining factor appears to be age, not size.

Pictures of the whole plant

This is a section of the plant (photo taken 17 October 2006), showing one of the most floriferous sections.

This photograph, taken the same day, shows most of the plant, which is about 100 cm [40 inches] across.

Fruit

This photo, courtesy of Alain Chautems, shows the unusual fruit of this species.

The capsules of most sinningias dehisce like a pair of hands clapping, splitting top and bottom and spreading apart sideways.  The capsule of Sinningia gerdtiana, however, splits left and right and opens like a duck's bill.

Botany geek moment here:

• The gesneriad ovary (and therefore, the gesneriad fruit) is made up of two subunits, called carpels.
• These carpels are "top" and "bottom", so that the two sections of the ripe fruit in the above picture correspond to the two carpels.
• Normal gesneriad capsules (including sinningia capsules) split into right and left halves, in effect cutting each carpel in two. This method of opening is called loculicidal. 
• The gerdtiana method is called septicidal, and is much more common outside the gesneriad family, because the break is along the seam which formed the junction between the two carpels.

Comparison to S. schiffneri

Here is a comparison between S. gerdtiana and its closest (but not very close) relative, Sinningia schiffneri.

Feature table for Sinningia gerdtiana