African violet

Read about African violet in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Saintpaulia (from the discoverer of the plant, Baron Walter von Saint Paul). Gesneriaceae. Hairy often stemless perennial herbs, used for greenhouse flowering, the blossoms providing an attractive blue. Leaves long-petioled, ovate: peduncles radical (or axillary in the caulescent species), 1-5 in. high, bearing several (or 1) fls. in a loose cyme: calyx small, deeply 5-lobed; corolla wide-campanulate, tube short, the lobes elliptic, blue; perfect stamens 2; ovary hairy: caps, oblong, loculicidally 2-valved; seeds small, ellipsoid.—Four species, Trop. Afr. The end of March is a good time to propagate saintpaulias, when the ripened leaves should be cut off with about an inch of the stalk attached, and inserted in the sand-bed, covering only a small part of the leaf-blade. The sand should not be kept too wet during the process of rooting. Their propagation from seed and general culture is similar to that of gloxinia. The plants may be flowered the entire year or given a period of rest by partly withholding water. S. pusilla, Engler, and S. Goetzeana, Engler, of German East Africa, appear not to be in cult. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Plant Characteristics

Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Origin:	✈	E tropical Africa

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	bright indirect/filtered"bright indirect/filtered" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property.
Features:	✓	flowers
Sunset Zones:		indoors

Scientific Names

Gesneriaceae >

Saintpaulia >

Saintpaulias are widely cultivated as house plants. Hairy often stemless perennial herbs, used for greenhouse flowering, the blossoms providing an attractive blue, violet, purple, white, pink and even green. Flowers can be single or double, solid or striped. "Wasp" type flowers have the upper two flower petals independently fused forming a tube. There are also compound leaves on some, that are called "bustled". Over 2,000 cultivars have been selected, with a very wide variety of flower and leaf colors, shapes, sizes, patterns and textures. Cultivars are classified as Large, Standard, Trailing, Semi-mini, Mini, and Micro with Micro being the smallest.

Leaves long-petioled, ovate: peduncles radical (or axillary in the caulescent species), 1-5 in. high, bearing several (or 1) fls. in a loose cyme: calyx small, deeply 5-lobed; corolla wide-campanulate, tube short, the lobes elliptic, blue; perfect stamens 2; ovary hairy: caps, oblong, locuhcidally 2-valved; seeds small, ellipsoid.

Cultivation

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African violets prefer a constant temperature between 20-25 °C (68-77 °F) with high humidity, and thrive best planted in well-drained humus or coir compost. Most nurseries and garden shops sell African Violet potting soil in ready-to-go bags. The plants may be flowered the entire year or given a period of rest by partly withholding water. Saintpaulias should be watered from underneath, and misting should be avoided, as water coming in contact with the leaves can cause damage.

Propagation

Saintpaulias can be propagated by leaf cuttings (essential for propagating named cultivars) or seed (from which new cultivars are selected).

The end of March is a good time to propagate saintpaulias, when the ripened leaves should be cut off with about an inch of the stalk attached, and inserted in the sand-bed, covering only a small part of the leaf-blade. The sand should not be kept too wet during the process of rooting. Their propagation from seed and general culture is similar to that of gloxinia.

Pests and diseases

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Species

On the basis of recent studies that showed most of the species to be very poorly differentiated, both genetically and morphologically, the number of species has been reduced to 6, with the majority of former species reduced to subspecies under S. ionantha, in a recent floristic treatment (Darbyshire 2006).^wp

• Saintpaulia inconspicua
• Saintpaulia goetzeana
• Saintpaulia ionantha (syn. S. kewensis)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. grandifolia (syn. S. grandifolia)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. grotei (syn. S. amaniensis, S. confusa, S. difficilis, S. grotei, S. magungensis, S. magungensis var. minima)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. ionantha var diplotricha (syn. S. diplotricha)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. ionantha var ionantha (syn. S. tongwensis)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. nitida (syn. S. nitida)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. occidentalis (syn. S. magungensis var. occidentalis)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. orbicularis (syn. S. orbicularis)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. pendula (syn. S. intermedia, S. pendula, S. pendula var. kizarae)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. rupicola (syn. S. rupicola)
  • Saintpaulia ionantha ssp. velutina (syn. S. brevipilosa, S. velutina)
• Saintpaulia pusilla
• Saintpaulia shumensis
• Saintpaulia teitensis

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External links

• w:African violet. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• African violet QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)
• African Violet Society of America website
• African Violet Society of Canada website
• Swedish African Violet Society website
• Finnish Saintpaulia Society website
• Gesneriad Reference Web Saintpaulia article