Fuchsia boliviana Carrière
Densely hairy or tomentose, evergreen shrub to 3 m high, with long thin stems bearing lvs towards apex; shoots green. Lvs opposite; petiole to 8 cm long, reddish pink, rather stout. Lamina to c. 20-(25) × 9-(10) cm, often smaller below infl., elliptic, with appressed hairs, remotely denticulate with teeth hidden amongst marginal hairs; base cuneate to rounded; apex acute or short-acuminate. Infl. terminal, pendulous, corymbose, becoming racemose at fruiting. Fls subtended by leafy bracts, these smaller towards the apex. Pedicels 5-20 mm long, slender. Floral tube 5-6 cm long, gradually widening upwards, pink or crimson, hairy inside and outside. Sepals 1.5-2.2 cm × c. 4 mm, lanceolate, pink or crimson, acuminate, reflexing at anthesis, with scattered hairs outside. Petals 1.2-1.5 cm long, elliptic-oblong, crimson, imbricate. Stamens c. 10 mm long, subequal, crimson. Style 1-1.5 cm long, exserted part glabrous, otherwise densely hairy; stigma 4-lobed. Fr. c. 2 cm long, oblong, shining black, puberulent.
N.: Waitangi Reserve (Bay of Islands), Auckland City and probably Tauranga; S.: Nelson.
Bolivia and S. Peru 1988
Scrub and much modified forest around settlements.
FL Jan-Dec.
F. boliviana is commonly cultivated in warmer parts of N.Z., especially N. of the Volcanic Plateau. It is represented in N.Z. by var. luxurians I. M. Johnston, which is characterised by the longer floral tube and sepals. In cultivation plants may have white fls.
Several spp. of the large sect. Fuchsia are prominent in gardens and occasionally are almost wild in milder areas. The most popular, in addition to F. boliviana, are F. fulgens DC. (floral tube orange-red, sepals green-tipped), and F. triphylla L. (lvs purple below and sometimes also above, floral tube orange to scarlet).
