According to Wikipedia, Fuchsia is a genus of flowering plants that consists mostly of shrubs or small trees.

The first, Fuchsia triphylla, was discovered on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1703 by the French Minim monk and botanist, Charles Plumier, who named the new genus after the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. (Note, Road Trips Gardeners, that his surname is the basis for the plant’s name.)

There are some 110 different species of fuchsia, most of which are native to Central and South America.

Our photographer found this brightly colored bloom at the Lake Shrine of the Self-Realization Fellowship in Pacific Palisades, California.

(Photo by Susan McKee)