Sinningia canastrensis

Mauro Peixoto distributed seeds of this new species at the 2002 AGGS convention in Morristown, under the name Sinningia sp. "Canastra".  The seedlings I got were never very healthy, and expired without ever getting more than an inch high.  Other people have reported difficulty with this species as well.

As far as I know, nobody in North America or Europe has been able to get seedlings of this species to thrive, much less to bloom.  I floated a long-shot guess past Alain and Mauro: that the plant is a hemiparasite (like the castilleja of western North America) and can't grow much past infancy without finding a suitable host.  Unfortunately for that idea, it appears that this species does not grow in any obvious association with another plant in the wild.

Another possibility is that it has an obligate relationship with a symbiotic fungus or bacterium.  Many (perhaps most) flowering plants do have such relationships, although not indispensable ones.  Perhaps this relationship is not optional (such as the relationship that cows have with their gut bacteria).

Feature table for Sinningia canastrensis

External Link

Mauro Peixoto's Brazilian Plants site has two pages about this species, one for the red-flowered form and one for the purple-flowered form.  The red-flowered form looks particularly striking.

Publication

Chautems in Candollea, 2010.