by Wayne Wood
There are some people at this medical center who are seriously into flowers.
Not order-them-on-Valentine’s-Day serious. Not admire-the-first-daffodil-of-spring
serious. Not idly-gaze-through-the-florist’s-window serious.
Serious.
You know the plants, or at least some of them: African violets, goldfish plants,
cape primrose, widow’s tears. Here’s what you may not know—all
of these plants, and hundreds more, are part of the Gesneriad family. This
family—and there’s no extra charge for this information—was
named in honor of the 16th Century Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner.
The Tennessee Gesneriad Society, which was founded in 1957, is the local group
devoted to the study, cultivation, and appreciation of plants of the family.
Several Vanderbilt people are right in the middle of it all, including two
longtime VUMC employees who are past presidents of the group: Julie Mavity-Hudson
of Cell and Developmental Biology, who came to Vanderbilt in 1979, and Carol
Ann Bonner of Pharmacology, who has been at the University since 1986. On
top of that, the current president of the 25-member society is Jonathan Ertelt
of Biological Sciences, who is the manager of Vanderbilt’s new greenhouse.
The world is full of plants. The world is full of animals, for that matter.
What about the Gesneriad family that attracts these people?
“They like about the same conditions as humans do,” offers Bonner.
“If you want to have flowers in your home, you’ll go to this group.”
She says that most are easy to grow and care for, a critical sales point for
those of us who are quite adept at turning thriving household plants into
decorative pots of dirt. “Most people who grow Gesneriads grow them under
fluorescent lights. They are perfect for apartment dwellers,” she says.
“They are easy to propagate,” Mavity-Hudson adds. “They grow
from cuttings and seeds and rhizomes and tubers.” There are, she says,
about 600 different Gesneriad seeds available from the national parent organization,
the American Gloxinia and Gesneriad Society—in which both Mavity-Hudson
and Bonner are currently officers. Both women plan to attend the annual meeting
of the national society in Sacramento later this year. They have attended
previous meetings in, among other places, New Jersey, Kansas City, and Toronto.
“I learn something new every year,” Mavity-Hudson says. “One
year we had a backstage tour of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The display
house was beautiful, but the backup house was wonderful. That was very exciting.”
In addition to being numerous, Gesneriads are also quite diverse, Bonner adds.
“Some of them flower when they are only an inch in diameter—and
there are Gesneriads that are trees.”
She should know; Bonner has traveled
to Ecuador twice to help a botanist collect plants as part of the Gesneriad
Research Foundation, and is going on a similar expedition to Brazil this year.
No Gesneriad is native to the continental U.S., although some species are
native to Mexico and Hawaii.
“They are primarily rain forest plants, although some are alpine,”
Mavity-Hudson says.
“I am very interested in the tropics,” Ertelt says, “especially
tropical rain and cloud forests, and Gesneriads are one of the many really
spectacular families well represented in these ecosystems.”
Unfortunately, sometimes emotions run so high over the qualities of Gesneriads
that unflattering comparisons with other flower groups come up.
“Orchids”—Mavity-Hudson says the word with just a hint of distaste—“bloom
one time a year and are ugly in between. Gesneriads bloom all the time—and
if they don’t, you have a nice plant.”
Home is Where the Greenhouse Is
Both Mavity-Hudson and Bonner have greenhouses at home where they grow Gesneriads
year round, and Ertelt has terrariums brimming with rare plants and even stocked
with tropical frogs, including dart poison frogs.
“More of the plants in these terraria have special histories to them—most
of them were wild collected, either by me or by colleagues either that I’m
close to or that collected these plants particularly for me—so the plants
are more precious to me in that regard,” Ertelt says.
“My husband built me a greenhouse for my birthday. It was the best birthday
present I ever got,” Mavity-Hudson says.
Bonner did have three greenhouses, but she is currently down to only two after
converting one into a laundry room.
Part of what they see as their mission in their organization is to preserve
rare plants that are losing habitat due to the encroachment of humans, and
to educate others about those plants.
“We own plants that literally only three or four people in the U.S. have,”
Bonner says. For all of their ease of propagation and care, some members of
the family may face extinction if not protected and bred by people who care—such
as Bonner and Mavity-Hudson.
Bonner got interested in the club in the late 1970s when she was working at
a plant store in 100 Oaks Mall.
“I bought a plant and I wasn’t sure how to care for it,” she
says. “I thought that if I went to a meeting, I would learn how.”
Mavity-Hudson says she was hooked when she came home from her first meeting
with a bundle of cuttings that she had been given by generous club members.
Membership has its Privileges
A love of flowers is not the only reason to be involved with the Tennessee
Gesneriad Society, Mavity-Hudson says.
“It’s a fun club,” she says. “It is very diverse—we
have doctors, nurses, musicians, gays, straights, young, old. The older members
are wonderful role models.”
Joining costs $5 a year, and those who attend the monthly meetings, which
are usually held at Nashville’s Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, hear presentations
from members and from guest speakers concerning all aspects of Gesneriads.
In addition, club members participate in other events through the year, including
the annual Lawn and Garden Show and the upcoming Propagation Workshop, which
will be held at 2 p.m. on April 12 at Cheekwood’s Botanic Hall. There
members of the society will be on hand to provide tips on how to use cuttings
and other methods to produce new plants. “We give people cuttings to
take home,” Mavity-Hudson says.
“It’s good for people to be educated about cool plants.”