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Boea hygroscopica
Rock violet is a Queensland resurrection plant of the Gesneriaceae family that tolerates almost total drying and recovers when rewetted. It grows along creek banks and on moss-covered rocks in rainforest and is best kept moist in a shaded, humid spot.
Boea hygroscopica (known as rock violet) is one of 15 species of flowering plant of the Boea genus in the gesneriad family. It is considered a 'resurrection plant' because of its ability to withstand virtually total water loss. Detached leaves of B. hydroscopica can withstand desiccation by increasing the small amount of constitutive glutathione by up to 50 times.
It is endemic to Queensland, Australia, and is found growing along creek beds, on moist banks and moss-covered rocks in rainforest, open forest, vine forest and gallery forest.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Boea hygroscopica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
