This beautiful species is best grown in an enclosed environment, to ensure adequate humidity. Otherwise it’s reported as not particularly difficult.
The strongly pouched flower is similar to a number of other gesneriads, which are not necessarily closely related. Examples are in several genera, including (but not limited to) Pachycaulos, Nematanthus, Trichodrymonia and Glossoloma. It is generally understood that the pouching increases the visibility of the flowers to pollinators, although there may be other factors in the evolutionary development of this flower form.
The feature photo above is of a plant exhibited at the 2013 convention of the Gesneriad Society. Additional photos may be seen in a slideshow by clicking one of the links below:
