Hi Marguerite,

I'm a real beginner, too. Recently I purchased B. Juan Chahinian's book "The Sansevieria Trifasciata Varieties" and it indicates the first dwarf cultivar and direct parent of most of the other dwarf varieties was discovered in New Orleans by W.W. Smith, Jr. and patented(No. 470 and was dated June 3, 1941) as an 'improved variety' of Sansevieria growing off a S. t. var. Laurentii. This was the beginning description of S. t. Hahnii and was in the section of the book "The Dwarf Varieties of Sansevieria Trifasciata" and this is also an abbreviated description of what was written there. There is a neat chart in the back of the book on the origin of the Hahnii varieties. Now if I could learn to identify what I see.........

Elaine

Thanks indeed to you, Elaine. That's exactly what I needed to know.

There's more to the story. Hahnii was a mutation from a regular trifasciata, as noted. As we all know, sanseverias have a prediliction for mutating, hence all the variegated and monstrose type cultivars. But, the birdsnest form is so different from a normal trifasciata--how did that happen?? I don't know the answer but I have heard it speculated that the birdsnest is akin to a juvenile form. When you root a leaf of the normal trifasciata it will first produce one or two short leaves which can be kind of wide. All the sanseverias have juvenile forms, quite different from the eventual mature form. Singularis (now fischeri) makes pairs of small semi-flat leaves when young but later makes long cylindrical single leaves. You can see the juvenile form briefly when you grow from a rooted leaf. When grown from seed the juvenile form lasts longer and is more pronounced.

So, the theory is that the hahniis are sort of locked into a juvenile form. They also tend to climb a bit--that is, they make more leaves per growth than a regular trifasciata and the leaves sort of stack up. Since the birdsnests don't flower, they don't have the hormonal inducement to stop growing a given growth after flowering.

An interesting theory, Jon. Apparently though, the birdnests, or at least the plain green S.t. Hahnii, do flower on occasion. The Chahinian book includes a photograph of one in flower, and says that it is "an unusual occurrence, but not an extremely rare one..."

I'm glad to see Juan's book has gotten around. I have it here somewhere. I'm thinking I ought to actually get it down and read it again, hmmmmm. I've met him a bunch of times--at the Cactus and Succulent Society convention, and up here when he gave a program to our local chapter. He has done a lot for sansevierias, sorting out the species and their names, and for growing and collecting all sorts of unusual forms. When I first started growing them in the mid 70's noboby was interested in them. There were almost no mail order sources and the offerings from the best succulent nurseries were at most about five or six kinds.