Hi,

the ORIGINAL growers? That must make them indeed very old, since trifasciata has been in culture for about 200 years, and N.E. brown wrote his monograph in 1915, describing some 50 species, which were in culture in several botanical gardens as well...

Helli

the ORIGINAL growers? I too take exception to this.

I grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where these plants grow lushly outdoors & are often used as landscaping plants around the base of apartment buildings, etc.

I'm guessing this was at least 45 yrs. ago, so am guessing this would predate their growing them too.

RFG,

I see you're new here. Now, if you bless us with your presence again, I'd suggest you do a little investigation into the history of a plant before putting your foot in your mouth (it was a little outlandish, which I give you credit for, though). Your history is right on, if you discount the first few hundred years of Sans collecting.

So RFG,

I'm curious to know where did you get this idea? Pretty wild.

Check your history or download Hermine Stover's Sansevieria book & she mentions the fact that Sans. have been used for cord & rope manufacture for many decades, especially in the era preceding synthetic fibers. Her book lists particular Sans. varieties that were used in rope/cordage.

I was also taught this in Textile School as rope & cordage from Sans, Jute & Hemp were all particularly important to mariners & the shipping industry.

Karen,

Let's not forget sisal rope (Agave), what with Sans and Agaves being in the same family.

n don't leave out Hermine Stover who wrote the first book on Sansevieria for this country. Seeds have been collected for several hundereds of years from Africa going back to at leat the 1700 the species were not invented by people, many hybrids are, but through the years natural hybrids came about and more species. Our Agrig. department hybridized to get long leaves to make rope. These are not species. Many documented species from the 1700 and if I really searched I think I can find some older then that. Plesse if you are quoting documenting give us the name of the book.
Kew Bulletine 1914 from N. E. Brown Monograph known at the time and identified at Kew at that time. San. Kirkiie Baker in Kew Bull. l887 I am not going back and corect spelling this message has been too long, and my hands hurt. Sorry but the informatiion is Accurate. Norma Lewis

n don't leave out Hermine Stover who wrote the first book on Sansevieria for this country. Seeds have been collected for several hundereds of years from Africa going back to at leat the 1700 the species were not invented by people, many hybrids are, but through the years natural hybrids came about and more species. Our Agrig. department hybridized to get long leaves to make rope. These are not species. Many documented species from the 1700 and if I really searched I think I can find some older then that. Plesse if you are quoting documenting give us the name of the book.
Kew Bulletine 1914 from N. E. Brown Monograph known at the time and identified at Kew at that time. San. Kirkiie Baker in Kew Bull. l887 I am not going back and corect spelling this message has been too long, and my hands hurt. Sorry but the informatiion is Accurate. Norma Lewis

I must be the MOTHER OF SANSEVIERIA. Or maybe my MOTHER who had them in our house in 1941. Maybe she was the Mother of Sansevieria, although SHE bought them SOMEWHERE! To credit Juan and other people and to not credit Dave Grigsby, to name but one of the people who marketed them, and Manny Singer. I mean, my modest book was written in 1983. Brown's was 1915, I believe, this is well before Juan's book.

Here is a link that might be useful: Endangered Species

Ed Eby formarly of the Dept. of Agrig. and dumped into the Crator when Nyklon was made to make the ropes that was need for shipping. Actually Alice Waidhoffer discoverd them covered up with brush. He cultivated them for the Huntington Gardens and they introduced the plant. From a letter and deposited at the Huntington Gardens. I discoverd a plant in Juan's book dated 1701 I don't know if their are others published. San. zeylanica (L.) Wild. in
Raiorum Plantarum 2: tab.21 (1701) I don't have the books to do a thorough search, I invite all of you to try please. Norma Lewis

I don't need to Norma, 'nuff said.

By the way, pls. read my post again as I SPECIFICALLY mentioned Hermine Stover both by name & book title.

Hi Hermine,

We've never met, but I greatly admire your book & in particular the drawings, just spectacular. A good friend gifted me w/ the book when I was starting to get into more assorted types of Sans. He & Norma helped me along a lot as did members of both Cactus & Succulents Society in NYC & Indoor Gardening Society of NYC as well. So I've got about 10 different types of Sans., mostly no ID, & not a yellow stripe in the bunch.

Note the original poster has not returned.

Hermine,

My sentiments echo Karen's - what I know of Sans I learned from your book - thank you for making it available to all of us.

PS - your links to plants other than Bamboo don't work. I'd love to see what's available to order.

In the last 10 years or so, Steve Jankalski has been very active in trying to sort out all the various sansevieria species. He has written, and continues to write, numerous articles in The Sansevieria Journal. He also moderates a Yahoo sansevieria forum (I think it is still going). Some people have personal issues with Steve, but I have always appreciated his original and thoughtful treatises on Sansevieria.

Michaela,

I assure you, the people who contribute much more here than I do, as well as lil ol me, have had many interactions with Steve. He is, as you say, a wealth of knowledge, but it was for good reason and repeated infractions of the rules here that he was banned. I do try to get along with him, but I tell you, that sort of hustle is very, very tiring. It's not that I'm perfect (surprise, I'm not!) but that Steve has a difficult time dealing with opinions different than his own and the differences many times escalate to personal attacks. I do belong to a few Yahoo forums where he's also a member (or the administrator) and it's not been bad in the last year or two. I do remember seeing communications from him to my friends, the likes of which I've rarely seen before, the depth of vituperative writing rarely encountered. You can count me as one of those 'some people', but I've just learned to not disagree with him (and in terms of nomenclature, there is perhaps no one better in researching the names of succulent plants. I don't know where / how he does his research, but he's got source material that many libraries would like to have). Anyway, I digress. Yes, you're right, with reservations.

Michaela,

I meant to clarify the 'names' as in succession of names that a plant can be identified with - taxonomy can be such a beast and Steve corrals it very well.

Cactusmcharris,
You handled that curve ball about Steve with great aplomb! Good job. Steve's literature source is The Library of Congress in Washington, DC. He lives, or used to live, near there in Baltimore.

Ed Eby is the true father of sansevieria. No one has amassed a collection such as his undertaking. To this date he has many unnamed species for which no body knows what, where or how.
Angel Ramos who in itself is a living treasure. His knowledge of plants and what, who, where can amaze you at 83 years old. His mind is sharp and he still gets excited over a new cross or clone. He has documented and named many many clones and hybrids. His plants have been seen on many an Ebay posting where collectors get things from this guy and makes $$$ from it.
I recently had the opportunity of visiting this great man and was amazed by the same drives he had maybe ten or twenty years ago. A father of 13 children and still ticking like a time bomb and rearing to go. He has the enthusiasm that will convert anyone who doesn't even like plants to grow them.

He loves his variegtaed sansevierias and grows many never before seen types.

Other people who should also be mentioned are the other cactus & succulent fanciers of Hawai'i including Nathan Wong, Tsukie Fujimori (passed away), Perla Alvarez, Moriso Teraoka, Elsie Nakasone, and Maureen Fitch. These will be another chapter of connoisseurs of rare succulents after they have passed.

Just because you wrote a book on the subject, doesn't make it your claim to fame. While Ed Eby may not have written any books on the subject, they are the true founders of sansevieria as for collecting them. You can look up so many of the Koko, EB, Alva, and so many codes that were in existence before Grigsby or Hermione came upon this.
Hermione has never collected much of the plant materials that she gives herself credit for. Many of these plants were in the hands of these collectors well before Hermione ever knew about them.
I think the rest of you need to bush up on your history lessons as you don't really have facts, just CONCLUSIONS from what you have read.
Juan Chahinian is the first person who actively grouped, and collected the laurentii group and documented this. Before this it was just word of mouth of what was what.
You don't see any Grigsby's codes or numbers in any of these collectors, because they originated from Hawai'i and codes and numbers changed after coming into the hands of other collectors. Ed Eby had the largest collection of sansevierias amassed into one collection. His plants originated from Africa and before that, not in any collection worldwide.
Just because something has been named, documented and labeled doesn't automatically make them being grown in botanical gardens. Back then you had to be a rare flower or some rare plant to be named after for a botanic garden to house it in its limited space conservatory. Get your facts straight, not everything was in botanic gardens even back when it was described. get real!

RFG,

Not sure what you're trying to prove here, but we seem not to be buying it. So you signed in TWO days before your earlier history lesson.

Lovely pix of fellow & his Sans. Beautiful Sans.too (tho' I much prefer green & white variegates to green & yellow).

You seem to be looking to pick a fight; not really what we're here for.

RFG,
Your very tenuous grasp of the situation is unfortunate, but that's just one of Hermione's claims to fame. She had, or has, magnificent pit bulls, too, kind of the approach you took in declaiming your theories. Chill on out and get real, my brother.