Deppea splendens, commonly known as the golden fuchsia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae endemic to Chiapas, Mexico. It is extinct in the wild. Despite its common name, it is not related to the true Fuchsia genus.
Description
Vegetative characteristics
Deppea splendens is an evergreen, 5–8m (16–26ft) tall shrub or tree with glabrous twigs. The petiolate, stipulate, elliptic to ovate-elliptic leaves with an acuminate apex are 4.5–15 cm long, and 0.8-6 cm wide. The petiole is 0.8–3.8 cm long. Leaves are arranged in whorls of three, or occasionally opposite.
Generative characteristics
The terminal, pendulous, brightly coloured inflorescences bear 16–25 pendulous, tubular, tetramerous, ornithophilous 5–6 cm long flowers with a red calyx and yellow-orange petals. The tricolporate pollen grains are 21.9–25.7 μm big. The compressed, ellipsoid, 6–8 mm long, and 5–7 mm wide loculicidal capsule fruit bears dark brown, 0.6–1 mm long seeds.
The specific epithet splendens means shining or brilliant.
Distribution and habitat
It was once native to high elevation cloud forest in the state Chiapas, Mexico, but has been presumed extinct in the wild since its habitat was cleared for farmland. It is now found only in horticulture, although efforts have been made to reintroduce it in Mexico.
History
Dennis Breedlove was a botanist at the California Academy of Science researching plants and ethnobotany in Chiapas when he discovered it in 1972 in the Motozintla de Mendoza municipality; he sent seeds of the then undescribed shrub to San Francisco in 1981 (he described it formally in 1987). That seed was grown at the University of California Botanical Garden, and the Huntington . All plants in existence are from that introduction. It is now widely grown, including in the San Francisco Conservatory of flowers, The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum, and at the Huntington in Southern California.
Conservation
The only known population was destroyed for farmland. It only persists in ex-situ collections in botanic gardens and private collections.
Ecology
The flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds. It was found in mixed cloud forest with deciduous and evergreen vegetation, and was abundant along a stream.
Cultivation
It can be easily cultivated in well-drained, nutrient rich substrate under bright and warm conditions, but does not tolerate consistently hot and humid climates. Deppea splendens is self-incompatible, but it can also be propagated vegetatively. At least three clones have been named: ‘Augustin’, ‘Bartolome’, and ‘Cristobal’ .
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