Fuchsia

fuchsia: see evening primrose.

---

fuchsia

Any of about 100 species of flowering shrubs and trees in the genus Fuchsia (family Onagraceae), native to tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America and to New Zealand and Tahiti. Several species are grown in gardens as bedding plants, small shrubs, or miniature treelike specimens; others are grown as potted plants or in hanging baskets for indoor or greenhouse cultivation. Fuchsias are valued for their showy pendulous flowers, tubular to bell-shaped, in shades of red and purple to white.

---

fuchsia

1. any onagraceous shrub of the mostly tropical genus Fuchsia, widely cultivated for their showy drooping purple, red, or white flowers

2. a North American onagraceous plant, Zauschneria californica, with tubular scarlet flowers

3. 

a. a reddish-purple to purplish-pink colour

b. (as adjective): a fuchsia dress

---

Fuchsia 

a genus of shrubs or small trees of the family Onagraceae. The leaves are opposite, verticillate, or—less commonly—alternate. The flowers are borne by long, drooping peduncles; they are solitary or in racemose inflorescences. The ovary is inferior. The four-lobed calyx is white, pink, or red, and the four-or five-lobed corolla is red, violet, pink, or white. The eight stamens and styles of the ovary protrude far out of the corolla. The fruits, which are berries, are edible in some species.

There are approximately 100 species, native mainly to Central and South America. There are also several New Zealand and Ta-hitian species. Many species, including F. magellanica, F. coccinea, and F. corymbiflora, have been under cultivation since the late 18th and early 19th centuries. More than 2,000 hybrid varieties have been produced, including many with double flowers of various colors. Fuchsias, especially trailing varieties, are used to decorate rooms and balconies. In subtropical regions the plants are cultivated in the open ground.

REFERENCES

Wood, W. P. A Fuchsia Survey, 2nd ed. London, 1956.
Hieke, K. Fuchsie. Prague, 1969.

S. S. MORSHCHIKHINA