My African violets are in full bloom and feature multi-colour leaves and petals.
Saintpaulia, commonly known as African violet, is a genus of 6 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae, native to Tanzania and adjacent southeastern Kenya in eastern tropical Africa, with a concentration of species in the Nguru mountains of Tanzania.
The genus is most closely related to Streptocarpus, with recent phylogenetic studies suggesting it has evolved directly from subgenus Streptocarpella. The common name was given due to a superficial resemblance to true violets (Viola, family Violaceae).
The plant is named after Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire (1860-1910), 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.
Ihren deutschen Namen hat die Pflanze, weil die Art Saintpaulia ionantha in den Usambara-Bergen gefunden wurde.
Der Namensteil Veilchen bezieht sich darauf, dass es zuerst violette, also veilchenfarbene, Saintpaulia gab;
mit den europäischen Veilchen ist die Pflanze dagegen nicht näher verwandt.
Der Botaniker Hermann Wendland benannte die Gattung Saintpaulia nach ihrem Entdecker,
dem deutschen Kolonialbeamten in Ostafrika Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire (1860-1940).
0 comments:
Post a Comment