Fuchsia glazioviana

Fuchsia glazioviana
In bloom at the University of California Botanical Garden
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Onagraceae
Genus:	Fuchsia
Species:	F. glazioviana
Binomial name
Fuchsia glazioviana Taub.[1]
Synonyms[2]
Fuchsia santos-limae Brade, 1957

Fuchsia glazioviana, called Glaziou's fuchsia, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Fuchsia, native to southeast Brazil.^[2] It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.^[3]

Description

Fuchsia glazioviana is a shrub that can grow between 0.5 to 4 metres (1.6 to 13.1 ft) high. It often climbs trees or low brush and has branches that can extend up to 6 metres (20 ft). The branches are densely packed with small, purplish, and puberulent branchlets that easily peel off.

The leaves are either opposite or ternate, firm, and membranous to subcoriaceous. They are elliptic or lanceolate, measuring 15-30(-40) mm in length and 8-15 mm in width. The base and apex are acute, and the upper surface of the leaf is dark green and glabrous, while the lower surface is paler and subglabrous, sometimes pilose at the base of the midvein. The margins are sparsely gland-denticulate, with 4-5(-6) secondary veins per side. The petioles are 3-6 mm long, purplish, and sparsely puberulent, with short internodes measuring 3-12 mm long. The stipules are broadly triangular, 0.6-1.2 mm long and wide, thick at the base, purplish, and deciduous.

Plants bloom from November to March. The flowers are solitary in the upper leaf axils, with slender, sparsely puberulent, pendulous pedicels measuring 12-26 mm long. The ovary is oblong, 4-5 mm long and 2.5 mm wide, with a cylindrical floral tube measuring 5-7 mm long and 2.5-4 mm wide, subglabrous outside and glabrous inside. The nectary is smooth, 3-4 mm high, and the sepals are narrowly lanceolate, 17-22 mm long, connate at the base for 4-5 mm, with free lobes 3-4 mm wide and acuminate at the apex, spreading at anthesis. The tube and sepals are red or pink, the petals are purple, obovate, 9-12 mm long and 6-9 mm wide, rounded at the apex. The filaments are red-purple, 22-32 mm and 16-28 mm long, the anthers are oblong, 2.5-3.5 mm long and 1.1-1.6 mm wide, the style is red, glabrous to puberulent, with a clavate stigma measuring 2-3 mm long and 1-1.4 mm wide, exserted 5-20 mm beyond the anthers.

The berry is shiny dark purple, subcylindrical, 10-16 mm long and 5-8 mm wide, and the seeds are oblong, 2-4 mm long and 1-1.5 mm wide.^[4]

Distribution

Fuchsia glazioviana is a local endemic found in Rio de Janeiro state, specifically on a few high mountains near Nova Friburgo and Santa Maria Madalena, at altitudes ranging from 1,500 to 2,100 meters. It is known from only two mountains in the Serra do Mar of Rio de Janeiro, where it grows in open campo above the treeline, extending from upper cloud forest. It grows alongside Fuchsia regia subsp. regia on Morro da Nova Caledonia, with the two species hybridizing locally.^[5]

Uses

The small, dark, oblong fruit is edible and has a mild, sweet flavor.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Media related to Fuchsia glazioviana at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Fuchsia glazioviana at Wikispecies