Fuchsia thymifolia Kunth

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Fuchsia thymifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/fuchsia/fuchsia-thymifolia/). Accessed 2025-11-08.

Family

  • Onagraceae

Genus

Glossary

bud
Immature shoot protected by scales that develops into leaves and/or flowers.
entire
With an unbroken margin.
monograph
Taxonomic account of a single genus or family.
nectary
Gland or surface from which nectar is secreted.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
reflexed
Folded backwards.
section
(sect.) Subdivision of a genus.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Fuchsia thymifolia' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/fuchsia/fuchsia-thymifolia/). Accessed 2025-11-08.

It is uncertain whether this species is in cultivation in Britain at the present time, but the fuchsia ‘Reflexa’, described below under F. × bacillaris, is very near to it. F. thymifolia is a native of Mexico and N. Guatemala, allied to F. microphylla and occupying similar habitats. It has been confused with that species but differs in the following leading characters: Leaves thin, ovate or elliptic, relatively much wider than in F. microphylla, and entire or slightly serrated. Tube of flower definitely funnel-shaped (obconic), not cylindric as in F. microphylla, greenish white or pale pink; sepals coloured like the tube, slenderly pointed, reflexed, their tips free in the bud-stage. Petals pink at first but deepening to maroon-crimson as the flower ages. A further distinction given by Breedlove in his monograph on the section Encliandra is that in this species the nectary is eight-lobed (entire and disk-like in F. microphylla).

F. thymifolia was introduced in 1824 and again in 1831, but seems to have given way in gardens to hybrids between it and F. microphylla (see F. × bacillaris).