Fuchsia History, Varieties And Hybrids

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

From the history of fuchsia

If you love this plant, then it is not difficult for you to understand the thrill of the heart at the sight of graceful flowers, reminiscent of miniature ballerinas in lush multicolored bundles, in incredible quantities collected at the ends of the branches of dense bushes.

First you see an elongated, tubular bud on a drooping long peduncle, ready to open its four pointed lobes of the calyx. Its color can be very different: white, pale pink or orange-pink, bright scarlet, lilac-pink, purple and many shades of these and other colors. Under the cup hides for the time being a corolla, which really looks like a ballet tutu and consists of four tightly superimposed petals (for simple ones, and many for hybrid forms).

When these extraordinarily attractive petals, as if from dense, smooth silk, unfold, long, colored eight stamens and an even longer pistil protrude from their center, and bent, pointed lobes-wings of the calyx hover above them - the fuchsia flower finally fascinates you with its exotic beauty.

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The shape of the whimsically altered petals can be compared to the delights of fashion designers who create fantastically fluffy skirts for fashionistas. The “skirt” of the corolla is not inferior to a cup in terms of the variety of colors: it can be from snow-white to dark purple, passing through the whole range of pink, crimson, purple, lilac shades and colors.

Modern varieties, which number more than 10,000 (and their number is steadily increasing every year), have corollas not only of a single color, but also with strokes, stripes; bicolor, with one color smoothly passing into another. Flowers of double and triple color are especially spectacular, when the color of the calyx and corolla is colored in contrast or in tone. In this feature, fuchsia flowers partly resemble a hybrid aquilegia, but surpass it in terms of the grace of the structure, the richness of colors and the tenderness of their shades. In addition, aquilegia in our area grows in the open field and blooms in early summer for 3-5 weeks, depending on the variety.

Fuchsia has been living next to us for many years, on the windowsill, balcony and in the garden; at home it can bloom almost all year round. Using certain techniques, you can achieve continuous flowering for a year or more. But more on that later. The most amazing and pleasant thing is that the plant is completely uncomplicated in culture. Even the most inexperienced florist can grow this blooming miracle.

Where did this beauty come from? Of course, from hot southern countries: Mexico, Chile, Peru. History has preserved the name of the learned monk and botanist Charles Plumier, whom we can thank for the appearance in the culture of this magnificent, one of the most abundantly flowering indoor and garden plants.

He comes from Marseilles, was born on April 20, 1646. While studying mathematics, he was at the same time very fond of plants and devoted a lot of time to studying botany. There are three expeditions organized by him to South America (in 1689, 1693 and 1695), where he studied the local flora, classified the trees from the bark of which quinine was produced. The bark of fuchsia trees hangs down in long strips. At the time, it was rolled into cigarettes and smoked in Europe instead of tobacco.

Charles Plumier's passion for botany earned him the fame of the most famous traveling botanist of his time. The scientist himself, unfortunately, died of malaria in 1709. But thanks to the works of Charles Plumier, more than 900 new plant species have come to Europe, including the beloved fuchsia.

From the foothills of Santo Domingo, Charles Plumier brought a wild type of fuchsia in the form of a low, highly branched bush with greenish-red leaves arranged in three in one node; small, fiery red flowers, similar to bells and collected in multi-flowered leafy brushes. The new unnamed plant Plumier named Fuchcia triphylla flora coccinea (fuchsia three-leafed with red flowers) in honor of the German professor of biology and medicine Leonard Fuchs.

With magnificent drawings by the author, this species, among others, was presented in the book "Nova plantarum americanarum genera", published in Paris in 1703. When Carl Linnaeus systematized the names of plants, taking as a basis the binary system (name of the genus and species), this type of fuchsia began to be called simply Fuchcia triphylla (fuchsia three-leafed). However, modern plant taxonomists believe that Plumier found, most likely, one of the varieties of a very polymorphic magellan fuchsia.

Botanists note that in the period from 1768 to 1843, other travelers to Europe from South America, Chile, New Zealand, West Indies brought another 12 wild-growing species of fuchsia.

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Fuchsia in its homeland occupied an important place in the life of the Indians. She was revered, in Santa Veili, in Peru, a rock with images of fuchsias carved in stone has been preserved.

The fruits of fuchsia in the botanical sense are berries, they are black-purple, they have a sweet taste, reminiscent of the taste of a peach, and a pleasant aroma. They were used for food as a dessert; the Incas made wine from them. And now jam, jam is made from berries, pickled instead of capers. Species with black fruits have the local name "Ink bag" - the juice of these berries is used as a dye. New Zealand fuchsia pollen (Fuchsia exorticata) has an intense blue color, and is used quite exotic: Maori girls add it to face powder.

The bright red fuchsia flowers do not attract bees at all. At home, they are pollinated by miniature hummingbirds. This is facilitated by a sticky and viscous glue - viscin, secreted by fuchsia pollen. This glue is pulled into long strands along with pollen, which hummingbirds unwittingly transfer to another flower. The same glue threads, upon close examination, can be seen in other plants of the Onagricaceae family (Oenotheraceae): fireweed (Ivan-tea), evening primrose (primrose).

The history of this culture also has some "magic pages". Fuchsia was considered a magical plant and was distributed by a Dutch alchemist society called the Brotherhood of the Rose and the Cross. In this flower with a cup of four cross-shaped lobes, a corolla resembling a rose, and opposite leaves arranged in pairs crosswise, alchemists saw the mysterious signs of a cross and a rose.

The wood of fuchsia trees under the hanging bark is green, shiny. Inside, it is sinuous, dark brown, interspersed with light stripes and waves. Wood of rare beauty is used for decorative crafts and inlays.

Fuchsia varieties and hybrids

Fuchsia has conquered country after country with its beauty and grace for several centuries, decorating both palaces and huts. Breeders-scientists and amateurs tirelessly worked with natural material, getting more and more thousands of varieties and hybrids. Basically, a group of hybrid varieties (F. hybrida hort.) Is used in culture.

But there are also species collections, where the most common are:

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graceful fuchsia (F. gracilis) with oblong thin calyx lobes and bright red flowers (can grow in ampelous form); -

Fuchsia tree (F. arborescens) with purple-pink flowers;

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Bolivian fuchsia (F. boliviana) with bright cinnabar flowers;

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Fuchsia scarlet-red (F. coccinea) with drooping flowers;

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prostrate or

creeping fuchsia (F. procumbens) with ampelous branches is effective in hanging containers;

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sweet fuchsia (F. venusta) from New Grenada has original wavy flower petals.

Fuchsia magellan (F. magellanica) is a highly decorative species; it grows in nature in damp bushes in Chile, Argentina. It is an evergreen shrub with purple young branches and shoots that are finely pubescent. Veins of ovate-lanceolate leaves, arranged alternately or in whorls of three, also purple. Flowers are single or in groups of four, axillary, drooping; corolla tube funnel-shaped, scarlet-red; corolla petals are purple-blue. Blooms profusely and continuously; there are many garden forms and varieties.

Very interesting fuchsia brilliant (F. fulgens) with dense, racemose inflorescences of bright scarlet, with long, narrow tube cups (up to 10 cm long) and short (up to 1 cm), corolla petals with a whitish or greenish top. Its stems, veins and the reverse side of the leaves have an anthocyanin coloration, which makes it even more elegant and temperamental.

On its basis, a group of Triphylla hybrids was created, among them there are many varieties, including Stella Ann, Thallia. They are distinguished by erect shoots and are especially effective in tub culture on the balcony, terrace. Hybrids of this group with red flowers are the least sensitive to sunlight.

In addition to large-flowered hybrids and varieties, small-flowered ones are also cultivated. Their peculiarity is a short rim, it does not protrude from the calyx. This group includes small-leaved fuchsia (F. microhylla), low fuchsia (F. pumila).

Each wild species has become a source of new varieties and hybrids, among them there are variegated, golden-leaved forms of fuchsia - in a word, the palette of its colors and forms is rich, and the choice of flower growers is almost unlimited.

Fuchsia has become one of the world's favorite flowering plants. Societies and clubs of fuchsia lovers in Europe and America annually organize competitive shows, special magazines and catalogs for floriculture compete in demonstrating fashionable varieties and recognized classics.

We have to note that in our country fuchsia was also loved and very popular before the revolution. Then, like many other plants, it was declared a bourgeois flower and almost disappeared from everyday life. She again appeared on our windowsills (and in production) in the 80s of the last century. In recent years, many interesting varietal plants can be found at horticulture and floriculture exhibitions. By the way, it is better to acquire young plants, they are easier to adapt to the conditions of a new place of residence.

Fuchsia belongs, as already mentioned, to the donkey family. The genus includes about 100 species of deciduous upright or ampelous trees, shrubs or shrubs. They have soft green, shiny opposite leaves, whole or with jagged edges. Fuchsia blooms profusely, begins in spring and continues until late autumn.

If you do not remove the fading flowers, then you can taste the taste of its dark purple berries, from which jam and marmalade are prepared. But fruiting requires too much effort from the plant to the detriment of its flowering, therefore, at home, fruit ripening can occur only through an oversight (fading flowers must be removed immediately) or for seed reproduction.

Read the next part. Pruning, reproducing and replanting fuchsia?