How many Sans specii?

20 years ago

I've read in two different places that there are about fifty different Sansevierias, not counting all the varieties of these. Does anyone know if that is correct?

Another thing I was wondering - is the bird's nest type of S. trifasciata a mutation of that variety, or was there deliberate crossing to achieve the smaller size, or perhaps natural hybridisation?

Comments (9)

Cena
20 years ago
Tough question.

Here are some folks thinking the same things we are:
http://home.enter.vg/mysuccs/index.html
Seperate screen, click upper for pictures. Good stuff!
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/columns/gardening/2003/20030724garden.html
GREAT bloom pics, monograph.
http://www.tropiflora.com/creport/cr12-1/p11.html
Resource Books.

That was about all I could find just poking around. Desert Tropicals doesn't seem to be impressed with them.

I will post my album soon. I forgot one, and need to get a picture. And I'm going out of town for a bit.

Thanks Josh, for your work getting this site up. And thanks to Spike for listening to the 'people's voice'.
madabouteu
20 years ago
The 'birdsnest' is a mutation of S. trifasciata. It appeared at a nursery in New Orleans, a very long time ago.
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lazy_gardens
20 years ago
"Desert Tropicals doesn't seem to be impressed with them."

desert-tropicals.com is mostly about plants that can be grown outdoors in Phoenix and similar desert climates with a minimum of fussing.

Except for the Sansevieria trifasciata (thrives here, as a outdoor pot plant or even in landscape) and a couple of others, they don't do well outdoors in Phoenix. Most of them are a bit too frost-tender for the winters and a bit too heat-sensitive for the summers, and prefer more hunidity than we can give them.

The aloes and yuccas have more species that like our growing conditions.
pirate_girl
20 years ago
Hermine,

Might you be the person to answer this question?
weedwoman
20 years ago
I went and looked at Trond Gimnre's site (Cena's link, above) Did you SEE that S. kirkii var pulchra in bloom!?! Jeez louise, what do I have to do to get mine to do that?

WW

Here is a link that might be useful: Trond Gimre's site
Russ_Hammer
20 years ago
Juan Chahinian's book on trifasciata cultivars says about
'Hahnii'--The first dwarf cultivar and direct parent of most
of the other dwarf varieties...was discovered in New Orleans
at Crescent Nursery Co by W.W. Smith Jr, and patented as an
'improved variety' of Sansevieria. It bears patent No. 470
and was dated June 3, 1941. The dwarf grew off a Sansevieria
trifasciata var. 'Laurentii' plant.

Russ
Central Fla
marguerite_gw Zone 9a
Original Author
20 years ago
Russ, what exactly does that patent no. mean? Because that cultivar is widely traded and sold without reference to a patent - has it expired, or is it a different type of patent to the ones on labels nowadays?
Thanks for the information also.
lazy_gardens
20 years ago
Plant patents, like all others, expire. I think they have 20 years.
albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.
20 years ago
OP asked about the number of species without considering varieties. The original monologue out of Kew Gardens had--sorry, I've forgotten, perhaps 46. I don't recall how I found the monologue. When I retired I gave my copy to the public library in Salt Lake City.