Kohleria

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Plant Characteristics
Cultivation
Scientific Names

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Kohleria is a New World genus of the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. The plants are generally tropical herbs or subshrubs with velvety stems and foliage and brightly colored flowers with spots or markings in contrasting colors. They are rhizomatous and commonly include a period of dormancy in their growth cycle. The genus was recently revised by Kvist & Skog (1992) and was recognized as having 19 species distributed in Central America and South America. Recent phylogenetic work by Roalson et al. (2005) indicated that the epiphytic genus Capanea is derived from within Kohleria, and the two species of Capanea were subsequently transferred to Kohleria. The genus Pearcea is closely related.

Because of their colorful and exotically patterned flowers, as well as a general interest in the many tropical flowering plants that were being introduced for the first time from the Americas, kohlerias were very popular in England and Europe in the 19th Century. Many species and hybrids were lavishly illustrated in horticultural magazines such as Curtis's Botanical Magazine under the discarded or erroneous names of Achimenes, Gesneria, Isoloma, Sciadocalyx, and Tydaea. These species and hybrids almost entirely disappeared in the early 20th Century, and plant breeders have only recently begun to work extensively with this genus again.

Several species are widespread, variable, weedy, and tend to hybridize in the wild, and numerous names have been described that are synonyms of other species or are hybrid taxa.


Read about Kohleria in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Isoloma (equal border). Includes Tydaea, Giesleria, Sciadocalyx, Brachyloma. Gesneriaceae. Greenhouse plants, very closely allied to Gesneria and Achimenes.

From Gesneria it is distinguished by absence of well-formed tubers and characters of caps, and anthers, and the 5 lobes of the disk equal; from Achimenes in the more tubular fls. and lobed disk. From Vanhouttea and Diastema the genus is separated technically by the open aestivation. Herbs, with creeping rhizome or base or roots: lvs. opposite, usually villose as in Gesneria: fls. scarlet, orange or vari-colored, usually peduncled in the axils; corolla cylindrical, enlarged above, erect or declined, the limb sub- equally 5-parted.— Species perhaps 50 in. Trop. Amer.

The culture is the same as for achimenes and gesneria. Seeds of the newer hybrids come quickly, and plants bloom the same year. It is probable that the pure species are not in the trade. Like achimenes, gesneria and gloxinia, they have been much hybridized and varied. It is probable that they are hybridized with achimenes and gesneria. It is not known how the current forms have originated. Some of the recent ones have fringed flowers (Gn. 55:348). Because of the variation and hybridization in cultivation, the names in this group are much confused, although few of them appear to be in the trade. The confusion is increased, also, by change in the generic name, from Isoloma to Kohleria. The genus Kohleria was founded by Regel in Flora, April, 1848. Later in the same year, Decaisne founded Isoloma in Revue Horticole, taking up, however, the name from Bentham who had used it for a section of Gesneria in his "Plantae Hartwegianae" in April, 1846. In 1848, also, Decaisne founded the genus Tydaea on Achimenes picta of Bentham (1844); but this genus is now by common consent included in Isoloma (or Kohleria). When this plant, which is apparently the best known garden form, is taken over into Isoloma, it would naturally become I. pictum; but the plant first regularly given the name pictum under Isoloma is I. pictum of Planchon, 1850-51 (and Regel, 1854), which is founded on the Gesneria picta of Hooker (1849), and this is a very different plant from the cultivated Achimenes (or Tydaea) picta, and the latter must take a new name; and it assumes the name given it by Nicholson in 1888, I. bogotense.


The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.



Read about Kohleria in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

syn. Sciadocalyx: Isoloma. The following species was not treated under Isoloma, see Vol. III, p. 1705. Isoloma Warszewiczii, Hort. (Sciadocalyx Warszewiczii, Regel. Kohleria Warszewiczii, Hanst.). Perennial herb, 3-4 ft. high, with catkin-like stolons: st., petioles, lvs.; and calyx villous-hirsute: lvs. opposite, long-petioled, oval or cordate, crenate: fls. in axillary umbels of 3-6 fls., bright yellow or yellowish green, red- or brown-dotted; calyx adnate to ovary, 5-lobed, lobes almost horizontally spreading; corolla almost oblique at base, tube slightly inflected, limb 5-lobed, lobes rounded; ovary hirsute, surrounded by a glandular, 5-lobed ring. Colombia. CH


The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.


Cultivation

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Propagation

Easily propagated by both stem cuttings and division of the rhizomeswp.

Pests and diseases

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Species

Many species and hybrids were lavishly illustrated in horticultural magazines such as Curtis's Botanical Magazine under the discarded or erroneous names of Achimenes, Gesneria, Isoloma, Sciadocalyx, and Tydaea. These species and hybrids almost entirely disappeared in the early 20th Century, and plant breeders have only recently begun to work extensively with this genus againwp.

Several species are widespread, variable, weedy, and tend to hybridize in the wild, and numerous names have been described that are synonyms of other species or are hybrid taxawp.

Selected species and varietieswp

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