From the Greek gauros, meaning superb, referring to the attractive flowers.
Annual, biennial or perennial herbs with woody bases. Leaves simple, alternate, the basal ones lobed. Flowers irregular, mostly 4-parted, in terminal clusters, white to pink, rarely yellow. Petals to about 2.5 cm long, becoming pink. Stamens 8. Ovary 4-chambered. Fruits indehiscent woody, nut-like capsules.
G. lindheimeri is grown as a border plant for the long season of butterfly-like flowers on long, willowy stems. G. parviflora Hook. is a small annual which has symmetric flowers with petals only 2-3 mm long; it has become quite widely naturalised in Qld and, to a lesser extent, in NSW.
21 species from N America.
Flowers white and butterfly-like on long stems overtopping the plant.
Raven &Gregory (1972).
Source: (2002). Fuchsia. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.