Petunia x atkinsiana

Petunia x atkinsiana (Sweet) D. Don ex W.H. Baxter in J.C. Louden, Hort. Brit., Suppl. 2: 655. 1839; P. x hybrida Vilm., Fl. PleineTerre 1: 615-616. 1863; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 17: 332; P. violacea var. hybrida Hook., Bot. Mag. 64: 3556. 1837; P. violacea var. atkinsiana (Sweet) Paxton ex Dunal, A.P. de Candolle, Prodr. 13(1): 574. 1852; P. x alba M.C. Fergusen & Ottley, Amer. J. Bot. 19: 395. 1932.

Annual herb, ca. 30 cm long, glandular hairy. Stem often weak, scandent, branched. Leaves opposite, pair leaves equal or subequal, sessile or subsessile; leaf blade ovate, ca. 3 cm x 2 cm, base cuneate, truncate or rounded, margin entire, apex acute, both surfaces glandular pubescent. Flowers solitary, axillary or terminal, actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous; pedicel 2-3 cm, glandular hairy. Calyx campanulate, ca. 1.5 x 2 cm (ca. 2 x 3.5 cm in fruiting), deeply 5- parted; lobes ovate, ovate-elliptic or ovate-oblong, subequal, 1.3-1.5 cm long and 4-6 mm wide (1.7-2 cm x 6-9 mm in fruiting), becoming large in fruiting, spreading, obtuse, foliaceous, glandular-pubescent. Corolla variously coloured, white, pink, red, blue, purple-blue, violet, magenta and combination of different colours, funnelform, 4.5-6.5 cm long and 7-9 cm across; limb spreading, broad, 5-lobed, lobes short, rounded or short pointed; tube ca. 2.5 cm long, gradually inflated upwards, glandular hairy without. Stamens 5, inserted in corolla tube nearly in middle, included; filaments slender, unequal, 1.2-1.4 cm long; anthers small, dehiscing longitudinally. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary ca. 4 mm long, 2-locular, many ovules per loculus on axile swollen placentas; style 2.5 cm long, slightly exceeding stamens; stigma indistinctly 2-lobed, lobes flat. Capsule conical, ca. 7-8 mm x 5-6 mm and dehiscing by 2-valves; capsule surrounded by persistent enlaged calyx. Seeds numerous, minute, subglobose.

Flowering and Fruiting: January to June
Common Names: Common Garden Petunia