Fuchsia [fewk' sya] is a member of the Onagraceae, the evening primrose family. The estimated 100 to 110 species have a peculiar distribution: Mexico and Central America, tropical Andes, southern Andes down to Tierra del Fuego, Brazil, the mountains of the Greater Antilles, New Zealand, and Tahiti. The disjunct distribution represents seven lineages which began diverging around 41 million years ago.

Plumier took seeds of his triphylla, flore coccineo to England and, presumably, back to France. Other species did not enter into European cultivation until the late 1790s and 1800s. But, once in the hands of gardeners, hybrids were sure to follow. The first listed hybrid was offered by Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie in Paris; it was probably a cross between Fuchsia fulgens and F. magellanica.

Our commonly cultivated Fuchsia, often called lady's-eardrops, is now found in a myriad of colors with single, semi-double and double flowers. In 300 years, gardeners and horticulturalists have 'created' more than eight thousand cultivar and hybrid forms.

(Compiled from: "Fuchsia", Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; "Fuchsia", A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, C. Brickell and J.D. Zuk, American Horticultural Society, DK Publishing, NY, 1997; "Phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of Fuchsia (Onagraceae) based on noncoding nuclear and chloroplast DNA data", P.E. Berry, W.J. Hahn, K.J. Sytsma, J.C. Hall and A. Mast, American Journal of Botany, 2004; and "Charles Plumier", New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, Kevin Knight, 2007)