Sinningia lineata tuber

This eight-inch [20-cm] diameter tuber of Sinningia lineata is over 30 years old.  It was started from AGGS seed in 1976 or 1977.

This plant is one of the parents of Sinningia 'Peninsula Belle'.

The plant was entered in two AGGS (now the Gesneriad Society) convention shows: in 1984 at the San Mateo, California convention and in 1995 at the Millbrae, California convention.  It traveled to Portland for the 2005 show, but got pulled at the last minute when I noticed caterpillar damage on a couple of the flowers.  No caterpillars, but who would want their show plant sitting next to something that had had crawlies munching on it just a few days before?  Caterpillars are one of the hazards of growing this plant outdoors.  They crawl up the peduncles and pedicels to the flowers, chew a hole into the interior of the unopened bud, and then eat part of the insides, causing the flower to bend and distort.

Recently, this plant has been blooming in April.  In 2004, I cut off the stems after it had finished blooming, and was rewarded with a second crop of flowers in August.  In 2005, however, the tuber did not sprout until the end of May.  I had almost given up on it.  Then it sprouted just in time for convention and critters.

I am not sure whether this had anything to do with forcing it to bloom twice the previous year.  Another lineata plant (a descendant of this one) did not sprout until the beginning of June.

This conventional bagel-shaped tuber is much younger than the one shown at the top of the page.

Cross section

This picture shows a vertical cross section through a Sinningia lineata tuber.