Out of Africa - Garden Plants – African Violet

Name – This is one of those many named plants, with labels including Saintpaulia, African-violet or African Violet, the latter being the most common in the UK, due to the flower’s superficial resemblance to true violets. The ‘real’ name of Saintpaulia was given because the plant was finally discovered by Baron St Paul Illaire in the 1800s. Finally is important – because it had previously been half-discovered by a couple of British botanists, but they had failed to send back samples that survived so it had neither been named nor propagated back in the UK.

Description – from a rosette of hairy leaves, the large violet shaped, but variously coloured flowers emerge on short stalks, the colour range includes pinks, purples, whites, and a rarely seen yellow.

Origin – The plants comes from mountainous regions of South Africa and Tanzania and its discoverer was the district commissioner of Tanga province who discovered the plant in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in Africa in 1892 and sent seeds back to his father, an amateur botanist in Germany. This is a plant that lives happily on a windowsill in Britain, but it has certain very specific requirements: it can easily rot if the hairy leaves get wet so always water into the saucer the pot is sitting in and never allow water to drip on the leaves or mist the plant. The plants prefer a constant temperature between 20-25°C with high humidity, and thrive best planted in well-drained compost or even coir. African Violets were the UK's favourite houseplant from the late Edwardian era right up until the early 2000s when peace lilies and orchids took the lead. One great advantage of the plant is that it can be propagated by leaf cuttings or seed and can have single coloured petals or multi-coloured petals, which are called sports. Propagating them at home is simple. Put the stem of a whole leaf in a jar of water and after around a fortnight it’ll start to form several new plants. However, for the serious grower, it should also be noted that there are separate male and female plants. Female plants have a lighter colour down the median line of the leaf and are more likely to produce sports when propagated. Males have a solid colour mono-colour to their leaves, and on their petals, which have a subtle iridescence on their surface

Africa African Violet photograph by bc anna, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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