Gesneriads: African Violet family
This is a large family of mainly tropical and sub-tropical herbs - many of them are interesting horticultural subjects. It is very well represented in Malesia, although most are not cultivated due to rarity or cultural difficulty.
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Henckelia
was previously placed in Didymocarpus, a East Asian genus now consisting
of mainly deciduous types in seasonal locations.
This is an unidentified Henckelia from S. Malaysia taken in habitat growing on large granite boulders. It has rather stiff leaves with undulating edge. |
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The rare Henckelia longipes is found only
at Gunung Ledang, a small isolated mountain at the border of Johore and Malacca in Peninsula
Malaysia.
It has a long peduncle and small pale yellow tubular flower. The photo
shows the natural habit of the plant, a stemless rosette growing amongst mossy
boulders under dense shade. It is interesting to note that many mountains
in Peninsula Malaysia exhibit a fairly high degree of endemism in their
highland gesneriads taxa, with the physical isolation acting as barrier for their
distribution. This renders the plants very vulnerable to even slight
habitat disturbances |
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The widespread Henckelia platypus flowering in June. The flower actually has a pale purple tinge not visible in the photo. This plant is very similar in habit as H. crinita below. It is also the most common Henckelia in the lowland and the only one still found in Singapore. |
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This is the widespread Henckelia crinita, which is a medium sized herb with a hard stem bearing a rosette of hairy dark leaves with jagged margins. Many of the flowers I found do not open fully which is very puzzling. The photo is taken at Penang Hill. |
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This is a very interesting gesneriad (suspect
another Henckelia) collected from central Johore growing on
a steep shady slope beside the midsection of a tall waterfall. After so
many years, I can still recall how in the middle of the arduous climb I
was greeted by a population of these plants all flowering en mass - it was
breathtaking. Recently, I was able to find anoher population of this
plant near the same location, but this time on very dry slopes near the
edge of a disturbed forest.
Until now, the ID of this guy has eluded me. |
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Chirita is another East Asian Gesneriad (African Violet family) closely related to Henckelia. Featured is C. micromusa - meaning "little bananas", a reference to the many seed pods as seen in the photo. This plant has only one soft leaf about 10cm long sometimes accompanied by a vestigeal leaflet behind. It is a rather uncommon horticulture subject originating from Thailand - it requires a very moist environment as its leaves will shrivel when dry. |
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Aeschynanthus, or lip stick plant, is a genus of ornamental epiphytes or lithophyes from East Asia, comprising of about 200 species according to Mary Mendum. A few species, like A. parvifolius at the top photo, have been cultivated or hybridised as house plants in the West for a very long time. It is good on a hanging basket under bright humid conditions. The species below is an A. albidus, which has less showy green flower and green leaves with pink underside. |
