Family Gesneriaceae
William Lobb, a plant collector employed by the famous Veitch Nurseries, introduced the first gloxinia to England. The correct Latin name for the species is Sinningia, named after a German horticulturist W. Sinning (1794- 1874) who was the Curator of the Botanical Garden in Bonn. Sinningia speciosa, which comes from Brazil, is the main parent from which today's hybrids were developed. It has purple blue flowers which droop, and it was not until the midnineteenth century that upright flowers were produced. The name commonly used by gardeners for this plant is Gloxinia, after Benjamin Peter Gloxin, a physician and botanist of Strasbourg, about 1785.
