Kohleria

Primary tabs

Kohleria

Description

Terrestrial or epipetric, caulescent, decumbent to erect herbs, subshrubs or shrubs, with scaly rhizomes. Stems rarely branched. Leaves opposite, rarely ternate, equal to subequal in a pair, venation pinnate, foliar nectaries absent. Flowers 1-6(-10) in axillary fasciculate or cymose inflorescences; epedunculate or rarely pedunculate; bracteoles small, but often caducous; pedicellate. Calyx lobes connate for ca. 1/3 their length, rarely free; corolla orange-red to orange-yellow, with red spots on limb or throat, funnelform or cylindric; stamens included to subincluded, filaments not connate, anthers coherent at apices and sides, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, thecae parallel; staminode present; disc usually of 5 free glands or of 3 free and 2 basally united glands or a 5-lobed ring; ovary half-inferior to nearly completely inferior, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a dry, brown capsule, loculicidally dehiscent, 2-valved, valves opening slightly.

Distribution

Guianas present, Northern America, Southern America: Peru (Peru present), Suriname present
A genus of 17 species ranging from Mexico to Peru and east to Suriname; 1 species in the Guianas.

Uses

Species and cultivars of Kohleria are commonly cultivated in temperate parts of the world as ornamentals. Plant parts are used in folk medicine in Andean countries (Kvist 1986).

Cytology

Chromosome number n=13 (Skog 1984).

Notes

In the Botanic Garden in Georgetown also K. tubiflora (Cav.) Hanst. has been cultivated, originally from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela, with a red cylindric corolla.