Sinningia elatior(Kunth) Chautems

WFO wfo-0000497299 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Sinningia elatior, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. a Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / 2021-12-05 / obs. 173208534
Sinningia elatior, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. b Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170482473
Sinningia elatior, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. c Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 173208599
Sinningia elatior, photographed by ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ
fig. d ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172974207
Sinningia elatior, photographed by ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ
fig. e ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172974213
Sinningia elatior, photographed by ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ
fig. f ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172974221
Sinningia elatior, photographed by ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ
fig. g ANDRÉS GONZÁLEZ, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172974228

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 12 botanical countries

Regions where Sinningia elatior is native: Argentina Northeast, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela Argentina NortheastBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaParaguayPeruUruguayVenezuela
Native distribution of Sinningia elatior, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 47 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.5 °C 10.6 °C 19.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.5 °C 31.0 °C 31.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,308 mm 1,588 mm 2,364 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 131 mm 251 mm 349 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 47 research-grade observations of Sinningia elatior that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 31 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Corytholoma elatius (Kunth) Fritsch
  • Corytholoma fragile (Poepp.) Decne.
  • Corytholoma igneum (Mart.) Fritsch
  • Corytholoma igneum var. villosum Fritsch
  • Corytholoma paludosum Rusby
  • Corytholoma strictum (Hook. & Arn.) Decne.
  • Gesneria elatior Kunth
  • Gesneria fragilis Poepp.
  • Gesneria sceptroides Hanst.
  • Gesneria sceptrum var. igneum Mart.
  • Gesneria sceptrum var. rubrum Mart.
  • Gesneria spicata Hort.Berol. ex Hanst.
  • Gesneria stachydifolia Benth.
  • Gesneria stachyfolia Hanst.
  • Gesneria stricta Hook. & Arn.
  • Isoloma elatior (Kunth) Decne.
  • Isoloma elatius Decne.
  • Rechsteineria elatior (Kunth) Kuntze
  • Rechsteineria ignea (Mart.) Fritsch
  • Rechsteineria ignea var. anomala Hoehne
  • Rechsteineria ignea var. loefgrenii Hoehne
  • Rechsteineria ignea var. loefgroenii Hoehne
  • Rechsteineria ignea var. villosa (Fritsch) Fritsch
  • Rechsteineria sceptroides (Hanst.) Kuntze

and 7 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.