Columnea gloriosa is a fine species capable of producing large basket plants with huge flowers. Most often the varieties grown have dark foliage as in the feature photo above, which is a function of reddish hairs densely packed on the leaves. There are plain green versions as well.
The flowers of C. gloriosa are quite similar to those of C. microphylla. The difference is that the latter has much smaller leaves than the former. Despite this plants of C. microphylla are often labeled as C. gloriosa, perhaps because the name (“glorious”) is so much more charismatic than microphylla (“tiny leaf”).
Additional photos may be seen in a slideshow by clicking one of the links below:
- A large trailing basket plant grown in a conservatory
- A closer view of the stems and flowers of the species
- A close-up of the flowers
- A fuzzy photo showing a green-foliage form
- A comparison of the foliage of C. gloriosa and C. microphylla
- A plant labelled as C. gloriosa but which is actually C. microphylla
