Fuchsia jimenezii

Fuchsia jimenezii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Onagraceae
Genus:	Fuchsia
Species:	F. jimenezii
Binomial name
Fuchsia jimenezii Breedlove, P.E.Berry & P.H.Raven

Fuchsia jimenezii is a plant of the genus Fuchsia native to Central America. It belongs to the section Jimenezia and is most closely related to the lineage (section Schufia) that gave rise to Fuchsia arborescens and Fuchsia paniculata.

Description

Fuchsia jimenezii is a scandent subshrub, typically 0.5-1.5 meters tall (sometimes up to 2 meters), and entirely smooth. Its branchlets are 1-5 decimeters long and 1-3 millimeters thick, with quadrangular shapes; older branches become round, with pale tan, finely fissured bark.

Its leaves are opposite, somewhat leathery, elliptic to lance-elliptic, with a pointed base and either a pointed or tapering tip. They are 3-11.5 centimeters long and 1-5 centimeters wide, dark green on top and purplish underneath. The leaf margin is mostly smooth but may have small, glandular teeth. The petiole is stout, about 1-2 millimeters thick and red, measuring 4-9 millimeters long; stipules are semisucculent, triangular, dark when dry, about 0.8-1.0 millimeters long and wide, often fused, and fall off.

The flowers are plentiful in terminal racemes, occasionally in axillary clusters or in 2-3-branched panicles. The rachis (flower cluster stem) is 5-20 centimeters long, and the pedicels (flower stalks) are slender, 6-12 millimeters long (up to 18 millimeters in fruit). The ovary is cylindrical-fusiform, 4-6 millimeters long and about 3 millimeters thick, shiny red-pink. The floral tube is obconic to subcylindrical, 2.5-4.5 millimeters long and 1.5-2.5 millimeters wide at the base, widening to 2.5-4.5 millimeters at the rim. The sepals are broadly lanceolate, 4-6 millimeters long and 2.5-3.5 millimeters wide, with a pointed, spreading tip, red to rose-red. The petals are rose-pink, nearly round to ovate, 4-6 millimeters long and 3-4 millimeters wide, rounded at the base and rounded to pointed at the tip. The nectary is an irregularly 4-lobed ring-shaped disc, attached at the base of the floral tube, 1-1.5 millimeters high. The filaments are a dull red color, with the outer (antisepalous) filaments erect and extending beyond the rim of the tube, 1-1.5 millimeters long, and the inner (antipetalous) filaments reflexed and inside the tube, 0.8-1.4 millimeters long. The anthers are white, 1.5-2.0 millimeters long and 0.9-1.2 millimeters thick. The style is stout, 6-8 millimeters long, with a capitate stigma that is obscurely 4-cleft at the apex, 1-1.5 millimeters long and about 1 millimeter thick.

The berry is nearly round, 10-12 millimeters long and about 10 millimeters thick when ripe, ranging in color from light to dark red, with a shiny surface. The seeds are reddish, 0.9-1.2 millimeters long and 0.5-0.7 millimeters thick.