Sinningia bullata hybrids

Ever since Sinningia bullata was introduced (as S. sp. "Florianopolis"), growers have been scrambling to hybridize with it, to capture its crinkled foliage and white wool in a spectrum of plants.  So far, none of the crosses have retained all the dense wool of the species.  Perhaps a back cross will recapture that.

On the other hand, the heavily textured ("bullate") foliage is largely retained in the hybrid progeny, making them very desirable and attractive even with a reduced amount of wool.

Here are some examples of these hybrids...

... by Mother Nature

Mauro Peixoto found a plant he believes to be a natural hybrid between this species and S. leopoldii.  It has the quilted foliage of the bullata parent, but not the hairiness on the leaf reverse and on the stem.

According the Mauro, the F1 hybrid has not been distributed, so plants found in the United States under the name Sinningia sp. "Florianopolis" x leopoldii were actually propagated from seed from that hybrid, and are therefore F2 plants, which will not be identical with the F1 parent.

... by Mauro Peixoto

This is the flower of S. bullata x eumorpha, a cross done by Mauro Peixoto.  Plant grown and photographed by Brad Walker.

... by Mike Kartuz

Mike Kartuz also made this cross.  Here is his picture of his plant, which he has named Sinningia 'Romanza'.  There is a lot of variation in S. eumorpha, which probably accounts for the difference in the flowers.  Presumably, the eumorpha parents had some floral differences.

... by Jim Steuerlein

These two pictures from Jim show his cross of Sinningia bullata with Sinningia conspicua.  The first one shows the plant.

This (also Jim's picture of his own plant) shows a close-up of the flower.

These are Jim's pictures of his own plants, of his cross S. bullata x (eumorpha x piresiana). Because one of the parents of the cross is a hybrid, the resulting plants will not be identical.  Here is one of the flowers.
	Here is a picture of another flower.  Below is a picture (still Jim's) of the whole plant.

This shows Jim's picture of his cross S. bullata x polyantha.  He writes that the leaves get almost brown like this when grown in quite a bit of sun.

Jim Steuerlein has crossed it with S. muscicola ("Rio das Pedras").

Jim has crossed it with Sinningia sp. "Black Hill". 

... by Iain James

Iain James of British Columbia, Canada, has made numerous, striking crosses with S. bullata.  A page from my 2010 Gesneriad Society convention pictures shows two of his hybrids.