Streptocarpus (streptokarpus)

[NL. (Lindley, 1828), so called from the spirally twisted fruit; apex. There are about 19 species, natives of South Africa and of Madagascar. They woolly or downy chiefly with spreading radical leaves or with a single leaf (a persistent cotyledon), sometimes with a stem bearing opposite leaves. The handsome flowers are mostly pale purple or blue; they form a many-flowered cyme, or are borne few or singly upon their peduncle. S. Dunnii, a remarkable species from the Transvaal mountains, is cultivated for its peculiar solitary grayish-green leaf, prostrate on the ground and over 3 feet long, with thick fleshy veins and clothed beneath with close reddish down, and for its bright-red tubular decurved flowers, of which there are sometimes over one hundred on a scape at once. Several other species are in cultivation under gla , especially S. Watson i, a hybrid with several large leaves and rich crimson flowers, and S. Rexit, with blue flowers. They are known as Cape primrose.