Alloplectus
(from allos, diverse, and pleco, to plait; the calyx appeas as if it was plaited in diverse directions). ORD. Gesneraceoe. Very handsome stove evergreen shrubs. Corolla tubular or club-shaped, straightish; calyx coloured. Leaves opposite, one in each pair smaller than the other, petiolate, fleshy, scattered or decumbent, or erect, the under surface generally reddish; branches opposite. For cultivation, see Gesnera.
A. bicolor (two-coloured). fl. yellow, purple; corolla pilose; pedicels axillary, one-flowered. June. l. ovate, oblong, acuminate, denticulate, pilose above, downy beneath; branches tetragonal. h. 1ft. New Grenada, 1840. Plant erect, rather woody.
A. capitatus (headed). fl. capitate; sepals red, leafy; corolla silky, ventricose above the middle; peduncles axillary. March. l. large, ovate, serrated, downy, reddish beneath. Stem bluntly tetragonal, red. h. 2ft. South America, 1847.
A. dichrous (two-coloured). fl. purple, yellow, axillary, crowded, nearly sessile. l. ovate-lanceolate, quite entire, pubescent. Brazil, 1845. A climber.
A. peltatus (peltate-leaved).* fl. whitish, about 2in. long, in axillary tufts. August. l. opposite, one is 1in. to 2in. long, and the other 6in. to 9in. long, and 2in. wide, oblong, shortly acuminate, rounded, peltate at the base, and raised on stout foot-stalks, 1in. to 2in. long. h. 1ft. Costa Rica, 1877.
A. repens (creeping). fl. yellow; corolla with curved tube, four lobed; sepals ovate, spotted; peduncles axillary, solitary. February. l. ovate, rather fleshy, serrate, on short petioles. St. Martha, 1845. Plant downy; an evergreen trailer.
A. vittatus (striped). fl., calyx crimson; corolla pale yellow; terminal and fasciculate, surrounded by vivid red foliaceous bracts. l. large, shortly-stalked, broadly-ovate, of a deep velvety green, having a broad greyish-green band down the centre, branching off along the course of the principal veins. Stems erect, fleshy. Peru, 1870.
A. zamorensis (Zamora).* fl. yellow; sepals orange-red. h. 1ft. Columbia, 1875.