Gesneria Donckelaariana

Gesneria Donckelaariana
Gesneria discolor x Ligeria rubra

La Belqiue Horticole vol. 9 (1859)
Gesnera discolor

In a previous number we noticed this fine plant. We are informed that it originated in the Botanic Garden at Gaud, and was considered by the Director (M. Donckelaar) to be an hybrid, produced between Gesneria discolor and the Ligeria rubra. (Form of Gloxinia speciosa.) Other persons suppose it to be a distinct species which had been introduced along with other Gesnerias, and been sent under the name of some other previously known species, but proved to be the fine flowering plant it is. The leaves are very large, heart shaped, green above and purple beneath. The flowers are produced in a large terminal panicle, and each blossom of a well-formed Gloxinia shape, tubular portion an inch and a half long, and the front of the blossom (limb) an inch and a half across. The inside of the flower is white; the floral stems are of crimson red colour. It merits a place in every stove. (Figured in Flores des Serres, t. 902.)

The same plant was named Gesneria Donklarii in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, and was thought to be a species. Also called Gesneria Donckelaarii.

The hybrid was fertile with pollen from Gloxinias. One such back-cross, pyramidalis, was the parent of Gloxinera 'Brilliant'.

	X		=
Gesneria discolor		Gloxinia rubra		Gesneria Donckelaarii

Floricultural Cabinet 23: 48-50 (March, 1855)

GESNERIA DONCKELAARII

Amongst the existing beauties of Flora, the plants belonging to the Nat. Ord. Gesneriaceae rank with the most lovely of our exotic ornaments, especially so are those of the genera Achimenes and Gesnerias, which by a proper course of treatment can be had in fine bloom every day in the year. Their value, too, is enhanced by succeeding so admirably during the dull months of autumn and winter, when the gay appearance of the richly coloured flowers are strikingly elegant and attractive, eminently calculated to adorn the stove, warm conservatory, and drawing-room.

The charming Gesneria which we now figure is an hybrid, which was produced in the Botanic Garden at Ghent. M. Donckelaar, jun., the chief director of that establishment, states that a blossom of Gesneria discolor had been impregnated by pollen from one of Ligeria (Gloxinia) rubra, and the result was the production of this highly beautiful flowering plant.
Our illustration was taken from a plant furnished to our artist by M. Donckelaar, who states that it is the most faithful portrait yet published. We regret, however, that M. Donckelaar had not at that time a plant more fully in flower, for our readers will perceive in our figure that there were nearly thirty blossom-buds which were unexpanded. We have seen several plants of it in bloom, and not one had less than from twelve to twenty fully expanded flowers, and the fine panicled spike, elevated above the two noble heart-shaped leaves, had a strikingly beautiful appearance.

As previously observed, it may be had in bloom all the year, by starting plants into growth at suitable successive periods, and after blooming gradually, to withhold water till the soil is all but dry, in which barely moist state the tubers must be kept undisturbed in the pot during the necessary time of rest, and be placed where they will be preserved from damp and frost.

It flourishes with similar treatment to other Gesnerias and Achimenes, grown either one plant in a pot, or three or four in a pan, as stated by Mr Prestoe in our last month's Magazine.
We saw it in great vigour, grown in a compost of equal parts of light turfy loam, good fibrous peat, and old dry cow-dung, with a sprinkling of silver sand, and a liberal drainage; this compost was not sifted, but well broken by the hand. It is readily increased by its underground tubers, and very easy to cultivate.

The plants can be brought to a blooming condition in a hot-bed frame or warm pit, and when beginning to unfold their flowers, may be taken to the conservatory or greenhouse during the period from April to October, but afterwards must be in a warmer temperature, either in the stove or other suitable room. It merits a place in every collection of this class of plants.

Gardeners Chronicle (Feb 9, 1895)
GLOXINERA x BRILLIANT.—We have received from M. le Comte De KERCHOVE the following communication relating to this hybrid:—"I have to-day received the Times of Horticulture—the Gardeners' Chronicle, and, as ever, to receive it is at once to read it. I noted—being specially interested in bigeneric hybrids—the illustration of Gloxinera X Brilliant, which in every way deserves its name. Mr. WEATHERS' note which accompanied it struck me much, as it reminded me of a very old incident. In fact, it is nearly half a century ago that Belgian and English horticulturists contended about a Gloxinera with as much fervour as did of old the Trojans and Greeks over the body of Patroclus. I am wrong in saying that they discussed a Gloxinera, since, if the plant existed, the name was not then invented; no one in 1854 thought of the wise rules which now regulate botanical terminology. In 1849 an excellent gardener, DONCKELAAR, jun., who succeeded his father as head gardener at the Ghent Botanical Garden, fertilised Gesnera discolor, Lindl., with the pollen of Gloxinia rubra. In 1850, plants raised from seeds sown in January bore many flowers. These were shown to CHARLES LEMAIRE, and in 1854 he published a figure in the Jardin Fleuriste (t. iv., p. 382), under the name of Gesnera Donckelaariana (Hybrida). At that time, when Orchids were hardly known, the appearance of a bigeneric hjbrid seemed incredible. The good faith of DONCKELAAR was questioned; he, a man incapable of falsehood, even of a horticultural falsehood! attached to the Botanic Garden in connection with the University, he could have had no temptation to distort the truth since he obtained no pecuniary reward for the new plant. But M. DECAISNE, who was then writing the Flore des Serres et des Jardins, published by LOUIS VAN HOUTTE (glad, perhaps, to challenge the opinions of M. Lemaire, editor of l'Illustration Horticole, then published by AMBROSE VERSCHAFFELT), refused to acknowledge the new plant is a bigeneric hybrid, and declared that he considered it to be a distinct species, introduced accidentally among specimens of other species of Gesneriaceae. But sometime after the publication made by CHARLES LEMAIRE, Messrs. VEITCH flowered in their establishment a plant brought from Columbia, and showing all the characteristics ot Gesnera Donckelaariana! He submitted the plant for examination to Sir W. HOOKER, and he, noting the characteristics of it, did not hesitate to make of the Ghent hybrid a distinct species, which he called G. Doncklarii (through an orthographic mistake over the name Donckelaar), and of which he gave a portrait and diagnosis in the Botanical Magazine in 1858, t. 5070. Is it not curious to note how, forty years later, Mr. VEITCH has successfully repeated DONCKELAAR'S experiment, and proved by Gloxinera X Brilliant that among Gesneriads, bigeneric hybrids are as easily produced as among Orchids?"