Species
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Sinningia speciosa (G.Lodd. ex Ker Gawl.) Hiern

ō-iwa-giri-sō, Begonia de Mexico (Dominican Republic), Brazilian Gloxinia, Brazilian gloxinia

Climate known 16 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Sinningia speciosa, sometimes known in the horticultural trade as gloxinia, is a tuberous member of the flowering plant native to Brazil within the family Gesneriaceae. Originally included in the genus Gloxinia in 1817, it was reclassified to Sinningia. Showy S. speciosa hybrids are still sometimes referred to simply as "gloxinia", although this name is now technically incorrect.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sinningia speciosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Sinningia

Sinningia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae. It is named after Wilhelm Sinning (1792–1874), a gardener of the Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. There are about 65 species of tuberous herbaceous perennials, all occurring in Central and South America, with the greatest concentration of species occurring in southern Brazil.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sinningia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Gesneriaceae
Described by
(G.Lodd. ex Ker Gawl.) Hiern
Native to
Brazil Southeast
Wild records
93 in range· 77 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1337mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 211 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Sinningia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1337 mm a year, wettest December at 211 mm, driest August at 39 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Gesneria regina L.H.Bailey; Gloxinia caulescens Lindl.; Gloxinia digitaliflora Paxton; Gloxinia discolor Kuntze; Gloxinia discolor Kunze and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Sinningia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (957 mm of 1337 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 22.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1337 mm a year, wettest December at 211 mm, driest August at 39 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1337 mm a year at the habitat, 957 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 211 mm, driest August at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1019 mm to 1719 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 15.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 15.0 °C, the absolute minimum 11.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.2 °C to 19.7 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 16 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1337 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 70 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–39RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 70 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 26–3029 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 24–2825 / 22–2624 / 21–2524 / 21–2524 / 22–2625 / 22–2726 / 23–2827 / 24–2828 / 25–29
Night °C22 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 18–2420 / 17–2318 / 14–2217 / 13–2016 / 12–2016 / 13–2018 / 14–2019 / 16–2120 / 17–2221 / 18–23
Rain mm194 / 129–306116 / 81–230158 / 121–221102 / 71–13364 / 37–9047 / 20–6653 / 18–6439 / 22–6375 / 51–107110 / 84–148168 / 117–251211 / 138–282
DLI38 / 36–4139 / 37–4234 / 32–3629 / 28–3124 / 22–2522 / 21–2423 / 21–2427 / 26–2929 / 28–3233 / 32–3735 / 33–3936 / 34–40
RH %66 / 62–7065 / 61–7067 / 63–6966 / 61–6865 / 60–6663 / 60–6563 / 60–6563 / 59–6664 / 58–6665 / 60–6866 / 62–6866 / 63–69

Each figure is the median across the 70 grid cells holding the 91 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2258:2731 (-22.925, -43.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 70 distinct grid cells holding the 91 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2258:2731 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -23.00_-43.125, lapse-corrected +109 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 190 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Southeast· introduced: Korea, Cook Is., Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte or lithophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.956, -43.337 · in the densest population, 50 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 93 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 77 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 234 km away. 15 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 93 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Sinningia speciosaSinningia speciosaSinningia speciosaSinningia speciosaSinningia speciosaSinningia speciosaSinningia speciosaSinningia speciosa

Photographs: (c) Henrique Nogueira, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); Henrique Nogueira, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Sinningia speciosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Flowering time control in ornamental gloxinia (Sinningia speciosa) by manipulation of miR159 expression
Xiaoyan Li, Hongwu Bian, Dafeng Song, Shengyun Ma (2013) · Annals of Botany
Organelle_PBA, a pipeline for assembling chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes from PacBio DNA sequencing data
Aboozar Soorni, David C. Haak, David Zaitlin, Aureliano Bombarely (2017) · BMC Genomics
Effects of Chitosan Soil Mixture Treatment in the Seedling Stage on the Growth and Flowering of Several Ornamental Plants
Katsumi Ohta, Shinya Morishita, K. Suda, Nobuo Kobayashi (2004) · Journal of the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science
Ethylene Inhibitors Enhance Shoot Organogenesis of Gloxinia (Sinningia speciosa)
Soo‐Cheon Chae, Haeng Hoon Kim, Sang Un Park (2012) · The Scientific World JOURNAL
Segregation of rol Genes in Two Generations of Sinningia speciosa Engineered Through Wild Type Rhizobium rhizogenes
Siel Desmet, Emmy Dhooghe, Ellen De Keyser, Paul Quataert (2020) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Evolution of Darwin’s Peloric Gloxinia (Sinningia speciosa) Is Caused by a Null Mutation in a Pleiotropic TCP Gene
Yang Dong, Jing Liu, Pengwei Li, Chaoqun Li (2018) · Molecular Biology and Evolution
Regulation of flowering time via miR172-mediated APETALA2-like expression in ornamental gloxinia (Sinningia speciosa)
Xiaoyan Li, Fu Guo, Shengyun Ma, Muyuan Zhu (2019) · Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Sinningia 79 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.