The flame violet (Episcia cupreata (Hooker) Hanstein) is a gesneriad, a member of the Gesneriaceae. The family is best known for the African violets with their white, pink, or purple flowers. Flame violet flowers are brilliant orange-red; the plants are native to the moist forests of Colombia and Venezuela.

The plant was originally named Achimenes cupreata by William Jackson Hooker in 1847. The species epithet, cupreata or copper, is a reference to the color of the abaxial or underside of the leaf of the original wild plant. Under cultivation, the flame violet has given rise to numerous leaf colorations; these cultivars are grown for their foliage.

Although flame violets produce seeds, they mainly reproduce by stolon or runner. A new plant grows at the tip of the stolon. In good conditions, a flame violet will colonize bare, shaded soil which gave the plant another common name, carpet plant.

Johannes Ludwig Emil Robert von Hanstein was one of the first experts in the study of gesneriads. In 1865, he reclassified the flame violet as an Episcia, a genus established by C. H. Persoon and an allusion to the plant's deep shade habitat. Flame violets do not tolerate direct sunlight. Preferring shade, they readily adapt to cultivation as houseplants.

Before Hanstein became 'infatuated' with gesneriads, he was one of the first botanists to study and carefully diagram internal plant structures in trees. In 1853, he published his observations and meticulous diagrams in Untersuchungen über den Bau und die Entwicklung der Baumrinde (Findings on the Construction and Development of Tree Bark).

The Gesneriad Reference Web is a great website for more information about the thousands of species and cultivars of gesneriads. To view the website, click on the link: http://www.gesneriads.ca