Calibrachoa

Calibrachoa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Calibrachoa
Cerv.
Species

See text.

Calibrachoa (ca-libra-KO-a) is a genus of plants in the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. They are weak evergreen short-lived perennials and subshrubs with a sprawling habit, with small petunia-type flowers. They are found across much the same region of South America as petunias, from southern Brazil across to Peru and Chile, inhabiting scrub and open grassland.[1]

Classification

Calibrachoa are closely related to Petunia. However, on further examination it has been found that there are major differences in chromosomes, corresponding to external differences and fertilization factors that distinguished the two genera. Petchoa is a hybrid genus derived from crossing the genetically similar Calibrachoa and Petunia.[2]

Calibrachoa was named by Vicente Cervantes after Antonio de la Cal y Bracho,[3] a 19th-century Mexican botanist and pharmacologist.

Species

A Calibrachoa hybrid

Species include:[4]

  • Calibrachoa caesia
  • Calibrachoa calycina
  • Calibrachoa dusenii
  • Calibrachoa eglandulata
  • Calibrachoa elegans
  • Calibrachoa ericaefolia
  • Calibrachoa excellens
  • Calibrachoa hassleriana
  • Calibrachoa heterophylla
  • Calibrachoa linearis
  • Calibrachoa parviflora
  • Calibrachoa pygmaea
  • Calibrachoa rupestris
  • Calibrachoa sellowiana
  • Calibrachoa spathulata
  • Calibrachoa thymifolia

Cultivation

Some Calibrachoa are cultivated as ornamental plants, popularly known as "Million Bells". The plants can tolerate light frost and thrive in sun or semi-shade. Plant in a free-draining soil and water only when the soil is almost dry. They can be propagated from tip cuttings, but are frequently grown as half-hardy annuals.

References

  1. ↑ RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 1405332964.
  2. ↑ The Value of Growing Petchoa SuperCal®. Ornamental News Oct 25 2012
  3. ↑ Pablo de la Llave and Juan José Martínez de Lejarza y Alday (1825), Novorum vegetabilium descriptiones, 2, Martin Rivera, p. 3
  4. ↑ The Plant List, retrieved 13 September 2015
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