African violet

Revision as of 23:31, 19 March 2009 by Raffi (talk | contribs) (→‎Species: listed new subspecies names, and old equivalents)


a Saintpaulia ionantha cultivar


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 >


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, locuhcidally 2-valved; seeds small, ellipsoid.

Cultivation

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Notes:

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.

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
    • 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

Gallery

References

External links