Drymonia coccinea (sp. nova umecta ined.)

Photo by Richard Dunn

This variant on D. coccinea is characterized by a slimy substance that coats the bracts from which the flower emerges. The plant grows as a liana-like vine, and can reach lengths in excess of 20 feet, even indoors in a greenhouse. Rick Dunn prefers to view this plant as a variant of D. coccinea -- he does not believe that the botanical data support classification as a separate species, as D. coccinea is highly variable in nature. It has appeared in The Gloxinian as D. umecta, but has not yet been formally published under that name.