Japanese name: ベニギリソウ（紅桐草） Scientific name:Episcia cupreata
[Overview]
An evergreen perennial densely hairy all over.
The stem is short, and it sends out reddish-green stolons (runners) that root at the nodes and spread.
The leaves are simple and opposite, elliptic, about 5–10 cm long, wrinkled along the veins, with rounded teeth on the margin.
If the temperature is high enough, it flowers all year round.
Several flowers are borne at the tip of a flower stalk arising from a leaf axil.
The flowers are red to orange-red and salverform with 5 lobes at the tip; the lobes are rounded and the throat is yellow.
The fruit is a capsule, and it can also reproduce by seed, but it normally reproduces by stolons.
[Cultivation]
Propagate from the young plants that form at the tips of the stolons.
To overwinter, keep it at 15°C or above.
It prefers bright shade and fertile, well-drained soil.
From spring to autumn, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries; keep it on the dry side in winter.
Apply slow-release fertilizer from spring to autumn.
Pests and diseases include aphids, scale insects, spider mites and anthracnose.
