Sinningia 'Carnaval'

Dave Zaitlin created this hybrid in about 1991. It was registered in 1993.

The seed parent was Sinningia kautskyi and the pollen parent was Sinningia schiffneri. The influence of the schiffneri parent can clearly be seen in the grooves in the bottom of the flower.

The flowers are quite similar to those of the pollen parent. The corolla lobes are white and the throat has lots of small dots.

There is no trace of the purple which dominates the corolla of the seed parent, Sinningia kautskyi.

The plant's habit, however, does not much resemble that of Sinningia schiffneri, being compact and compressed. However, as can be seen in the photo below, of the same plant, but from the back, the stems do get bare with age, like those of the Sinningia schiffneri parent.

Incidentally, the spelling 'Carnaval' is correct. English is almost the only language to spell carnival with i as the middle vowel. Portuguese and French and Russian have a, German and Italian and Swedish have e. Portuguese is the operative language here, since the two species parents and the festival the hybrid is named after are all Brazilian.

Feature table for Sinningia 'Carnaval'

Plant Description
Growth	Indeterminate
Habit	Creeping, the stems having very short internodes
Leaves	Gray-green and slightly fuzzy on top, red on the bottom.
Dormancy	My plant does have a tuber, but has not gone dormant yet
Flowering
Inflorescence	axillary cyme of 1-2 flowers, no peduncle
Season	Mine bloomed for the first time in October 2011
Flower	Funnelform corolla, about 2.5 cm long, with flaring lobes, corolla lobes white, tube blush purple near base on outside, spotted purple on inside
Horticultural aspects
Hardiness	No information yet.
Recommended?	A qualified yes. The plant is compact and attractive. At this writing [November 2011], it remains to be seen how it will handle winter and how floriferous it will be.
Hybridization
Hybridizer	Dave Zaitlin
Fertility	Almost certainly not fertile. Dale Martens reports she was unable to use this hybrid as a parent.
Botany
Taxonomic group	Sinningia kautskyi is in the Sinningia clade, while Sinningia schiffneri is in the distant Thamnoligeria clade, so it should not be fertile unless it is tetraploid.