Keyed Out #111 — Fuchsia magellanica

Question 1

Every whorl of the flower runs in fours — four outer segments, four inner, eight {stamens} in two ranks — and the {stigma} at the tip of the style is divided into four lobes.

Accepted Answer

evening primrose family

Question 2

The seed vessel is buried in and fused to the flower stalk below the coloured parts, so the spent bloom drops from the top of a swelling that is already the young fruit.

Accepted Answer

Onagraceae

Question 3

The ripening {ovary} becomes a soft, juicy, many-seeded fruit that never splits, rather than a dry pod opening along seams to shed its seed.

Accepted Answer

Fuchsia

Question 4

The four outer segments are as vividly coloured as petals, flare backwards as the flower opens, and are about twice the length of the four true petals, the whole bloom hanging mouth-downward with the pollen organs dangling clear.

Accepted Answer

Fuchsia

Question 5

The coloured tube between the swollen stalk and the flaring segments is a short cylinder only about half an inch (10 to 13 mm) long, much shorter than the segments above it, not a slender trumpet two inches (5 cm) or more.

Accepted Answer

Fuchsia magellanica

Question 6

The blades are small, 1 to 2.5 inches (2.5 to 6 cm) long, and set three or four together around each joint of the stem, not borne as simple opposite pairs of hand-sized leaves.

Accepted Answer

Fuchsia magellanica