Flame violet flowers are brilliant orange-red; the plants are native to the
moist forests of Colombia and Venezuela. It belongs to the family of
African Violets. The species epithet, cupreata or copper, is a reference to
the color of the abaxial or underside of the leaf of the original wild
plant. Under cultivation, the flame violet has given rise to numerous leaf
colorations; these cultivars are grown for their foliage. Leaves simple,
opposite, blade elliptic, 4-12 cm long, margins scalloped,
surface variegated with pale green, copper, reddish green, or all three
colors, pubescent, puckered. Flowers continuously throughout the year;
flowers two to four, borne in a fascicle atop a long, hairy peduncle.
Flowers with fused petals, salverform and two-lipped, tube 2-3 cm long,
limb of five spreading, nearly round lobes 7-10 mm long, red with a yellow
throat, margins toothed and ciliate. Although flame violets produce seeds,
they mainly reproduce by stolon or runners. A new plant grows at the tip of
the stolon. In good conditions, a flame violet will colonize bare, shaded
soil which gave the plant another common name, carpet plant. It is a good
hanging basket plant.
Identification credit: Nandan Kalbag & Prashant More
Photographed in Jijamata Udyan, Mumbai.
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The flower labeled Flame Violet is ...