Chirita sinensis Lindl., Edwards’s Bot. Reg. 30: t. 59 1844. (syn: Chirita dryas Dunn; Chirita sinensis var. angustifolia Dunn; Chirita sinensis var. bodinieri H. Lév.; Didymocarpus sinensis (Lindl.) H. Lév.; Roettlera sinensis (Lindl.) Kuntze);
Southern Asia as per Catalogue of Life;
SK1428 10 Sep 2018 : 4 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (6)- around 600 kb each. Location: Victoria Peak, Hong Kong
Date: 12 August 2018
Elevation: 1300 ft.
Habit : Wild
Gesnereceae sp .???
This should be Chirita sinensis.
SK1430 11 Sep 2018 : 4 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (8) Location: Victoria Peak, Hong Kong
Date: 13 August 2018
Elevation: 1300 ft.
Habit : Wild
Primulina …. ???
Yes this is wild in HK. Lot of variation in leaves. Chirita sinensis.
SK1465 23 Sep 2018 : 21 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (5)- around 1 Mb each. Location: Hong Kong Park
Date: 15 August 2018
Elevation: 200 ft.
Habit : Cultivated
Pilea sp with red 5 mer single flowers on a short stalk. called aluminium plant because of the whitish/silvery splotches between veins. the red flower gets it the name watermelon pilea i guess. i think this is Pilea cadierei per the RHS I am afraid it is not the correct ID. so what did the label say? now you can share it with me only if you dont want to announce to all yet?? This plant also did not have a label …! That is why I could not post. so how do you know sure that my guess is wrong I think this is Chirita sinensis. well. this is curious. hong kong herbarium shows this http://www.herbarium.gov.hk/subpages.aspx?id=6019 which is not representative of the pictures submitted here but google shows some sites with images with whitish blotches similar to what is submitted but leaves have different shapes etc, yet i take it, it is chirita sinensis as you say. there may be a large variance among growing conditions
so what google shows is different from what hongkong herbarium shows. and it must have been a common plant in hong kong since Patrick Blanc has an entire wall in hong kong covered with chirita sinensis that he planted 2015
these pictures had made several appearances in vertical gardening sites back then. so everybody must be familiar with this plant and its variations.
I have seen plants guessed by you in that garden with labels which looks completely different than the image I posted.
That is why I said so. Pilea cadierei looked liked in the link.
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Chirita is very variable. I have seen plants with long and short leaves, variegated and non variegated leaves. see here, blotches are not that important character for this species Patrick Blanc’s webpage wall is also from Hong Kong and you can see the leaves there are so different from leaves on AFCD website. I have seen this plant many times in wild and leaves are highly variable.
If you look at the flower buds, it is obviously not Pilea cadierei and far away from that family too.
Hope this helps.
I can ask my friend when he comes. Today and tomorrow he is off. Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.
Is it not that wild plants look different (as also shown in Hong Kong Database) as posted by Saroj ji in another thread and cultivated plants are highly variable as they are in many other cultivated plants? exactly widely variable species, it seems. also whats in wild, in manmade ‘wild ‘ as in the wall, and what is in horticulture is very variable
so it behooves me and us to keep an open mind. and that’s why our posting guidelines include wild or cultivated category.
nice case to learn about this phenomenon.
I do not have a faintest idea about it. I just took picture and posted for ID.
Could it be Episcia cupreata (Hook.) Hanst. ??
‘I just took picture and posted for ID.’
that’s perfectly fine, i am glad you did. we got to see variability
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but if its not variable, its got to be 5 mer flower plant with silvery splotchy leaf houseplant with orangish flower. now to hunt for one
Yes sir it is possible. Many Gesneriaceae has that kind of leaf.
In Chirita sinensis many variations are found in wild. In cultivation they like silver markings on the leaf so they grow more of such plants than the plants without markings.
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