(Photo & text Chuck Hassett)

Fuchsia pringsheimii

Fuchsia pringsheimii (Urban, 1899, Hispaniola). Section Fuchsia. Red tube, sepals and corolla with slight coloring of green on sepal tips. Upright to scandent, low shrub. Characterized by axillary flowers with wide floral tubes and very large retuse petals, and by its small dark-green few-veined leaves. Found at elevations of 46008500 ft. (1400-2600 m) in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Seems to need extra warmth and light to produce flowers.

[Note: Fuchsia 'Mantilla' (Reiter, 1948) is thought to have descended from a natural hybrid of F. pringsheimii and F. triphylla, thus the pringsheimii-like petals of 'Mantilla'.]

Chuck Hassett's plea: If possible, let it be known that I would very much like to find another plant or seeds of F. pringsheimii.

I lost my plant when our temperature unexpectedly fell below 25°F in December 1991. Jack Lamb attempted without success to send or bring a plant to me from England but I think he has lost his also.

Chuck Hassett

[PLEASE e-mail Chuck Hassett HERE, if you can help]