Authors: Lam.
This bushy deciduous shrub can reach 2-3m and is much too large for the rock garden, but there are suitable dwarf varieties, cultivars and hybrids. Basic magellanica has narrowly ovate to elliptic, irregularly toothed leaves up to 5cm long. The flowers, borne from the upper leaf axils are about 2.5cm long with a red tube and sepals and purple to violet petals opening from summer to autumn. Temperate South America from Tierra del Fuego north to the latitude of Valparaiso. Reasonably hardy and seldom completely frost killed. i s16 2 F.m. var. discolor is dwarfer and more compact but still over-large for most rock gardens. It is perhaps the hardiest of all fuchsias coming from the Straits of Magellan. The following dwarf cultivars are known or considered to be of hybrid origin: 'Alice Hoffman', flowers semi-double, tube and sepals red, petals white. 'Corallina' (syn. Exoniensis), stems low and arching, wide-spreading, flowers single, tube and sepals red, petals reddish-purple. 'Globosa', (possibly F. magellanica X F. coccinea), dwarf spreading habit. Flowers single, balloon-shaped when expanding, the tube and sepals crimson, petals violet. Rare and presumed extinct, the plant in cultivation probably not the original. 'Howletts Hardy', low spreading habit. Flowers single, tube and sepals pale scarlet, petals violet-blue aging pinkish-magenta. 'Lady Thumb' (a mutation from 'Tom Thumb'), flowers semi-double, tube and sepals light carmine, petals white, veined carmine. Prostrata, mat-forming and fast growing. Flowers small, single, tube and sepals red, petals violet. Rare in cultivation but worth seeking out. 'Pumila', erect but low and bushy, seldom above 25cm tall. Flowers single, tube and sepals bright red, petals mauve. At one time confused in name with 'Tom Thumb', which can reach 30cm in height, with flowers also single but tube and sepals carmine pink and petals light mauve-purple bearing carmine veins. 'W.P. Wood', erect but dwarf habit. Flowers single, tube and sepals rich scarlet, petals reddish-purple shading to red at the base.
