Gesneriad Society Convention 2008:

This is Calcaroboea coccinea, a species from southern China (Guangxi, Yunnan) and Vietnam.  I wonder what's attracted to those red flowers.

What the heck is this?  Looks like some dang weedy chirita, you know, C. lavandulacea or something like that.  Alan, why are you showing this to us?  It doesn't even have any flowers.

This isn't a chirita or a weedy streptocarpella either.  It's a cyrtandra.  It may be the first time a cyrtandra has been exhibited in a Gesneriad Society Show.

Cyrtandras have a reputation for being very difficult to grow, requiring high humidity and steady, warm temperatures.  These are found only in the wet forests of the south Pacific and Bill Price's house.

Here are two closeups of the plant.  The picture on the left shows flowerbuds in one of the axils.  A few weeks later and we would have seen some cyrtandra flowers!

The picture on the right shows a developing cyrtandra fruit.  So even without open flowers, this is an exciting specimen.