Magellan Fuchsia, Hardy Fuchsia         FU-shah ma-gel-LAN-i-ka

• Deciduous, erect, arching, or semi-climbing shrub, to 2-10 ft (0.5-3 m) tall or greater, ornamental forms are generally on the lower end of the size range, but may become large in areas with mild winters.  Branches thin, red-brown, glabrous.  Leaves opposite, or in threes or fours, 2.5-8.5 cm long, elliptic to ovate, deep green and glabrous above, paler and glabrous below, purple veins.  Flowers solitary or sometimes paired in leaf axils at the upper end of branches, stalk 2.5-3 cm long, pendent, tube deep red, 8 mm long, sepals deep red 18 mm long, petals purple, 10 mm long, stamens very much exserted .  Fruit oblong, about 1.5 cm long.
• Sun part shade.  The hardiest of the Fuchsias, but generally the tops die back at the first frost.  The roots are hardy with mulching, and in cold areas is treated as a perennial.
• Hardy to USDA Zone (6)7     Native to southern Chile and Argentina.  A variable species, with number of subspecis.
• It has naturalized in South America and elsewhere, is sometimes considered an invasive species in mild regions.
• magellanica: from the region of the Magellan Straits, southern Chile.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: Hort Garden, west of Cordley Hall.