Silver Fur Plant is in bloom wow!

[swords]

I got a strange looking plant a while ago called Rechsteineria lencotricha nowadays called Sinningia lencotricha. It's covered in silver fur and growing from a caudex that can eventually get to a foot in diameter. I had a nice surprise when I saw that it was coming into bloom the other day!

poor macro shot:

No smell from the flowers that I can detect.

 

[seedjar]

Neat! What's the caudex look like?
~Joe

 

[PlantAKiss]

That is a reallllly cool plant!! I like that!

 

[r_miller]

Peculiar looking flower in that thing. Looks like a nice plant!

 

[Finch]

Sharp looking plant there, and the flower structure and color indicate that it is a bird-pollinated species, hence the lack of scent. Is that from the Americas?

 

[swords]

The flower made the botanists put the plant in Sinningia with other calyx tube flowered species like the goldfish plant and others in the Gesneriad family. I like the old name, it sounds more obscure! I bought it off the cacti-succulent table. So I'm growing it with my other succulents but I water it whenever I notice the pot is going dry. After it blooms I'll repot it into a medium I like better, my local "tropical plant" nursery seems to have a love affair with using pure peat on just about everything except orchids. But any plants I've ever kept long term in it are no longer among the living.

You can see the caudex in the pot where the leaves emerge, just a big brown lump pf plant flesh about the size of a 50 cent piece. I guess it can get sort of a silvery bark on it with age. It would probably be buried in the wild but I'm keeping it above ground so it doesn't rot and so I know there is something in the pot if the leafy parts die off. According to web surfing it "won't go dormant" if I keep it continually watered and warm so maybe I can get a 12" caudex in only 20 years under lights...

Finch, if it's bird pollinated that should mean either the pollen or the stamen is at the base of the tube? I wonder if I can emasculate a flower and pollinate another on the same plant to get seeds? Some aren't self fertilize even with help... Any of you ever pollinate a goldfish plant or similar?

 

[Finch]

The base? No it should be just behind the stamens... the pollen looks like it is placed on the face, so the style should be where the bird's face can reach, it could be placed on the top of the tube or possibly even fused to it. You could attempt to pollinate it, I don't know if these plants are self-compatible, though.

 

[Trapper7]

That is a great looking plant!