Some years ago Boris Vrskovy from Slovakia gave me a few leaf cuttings off his plants, one of them was from a plant he collected on February 2003 in the border between Kenya and Somalia, in the island of Kiwayo. He also later sent me a copy of an article he wrote for the Sansevieria journal 16/2007, with pictures of this plant growing near the sea on page 21, and a picture of a propagation of the species in his garden on page 25. I have tried to put a name to that plant, without success - it did not quite match S. arborescens, the name that Boris used for the plant.

On page 82 of Juan Chahinian book, "The Splendid Sansevieria" there is a picture of a plant which is the closest match to the one I have, it is the picture in the lower part of the page, of a plant collected by C.P. Bailes in Kismaayo, on sub-coastal sand dunes, Somalia. I assume it comes from the same place as Boris plants, the name "Kismaayo" being a variant of "Kiwayo". But in Chahinian's book that plant is also without a name.

Then recently I learned that Len Newton had published a new Sansevieria species related to S. arborescens but with much thicker leaves, S. powysii. I wanted to check if that was the plant I have. Len states that this species comes from Kiwaiyu Island, that I assume to be yet another spelling variant of "Kismaayo" and "Kiwayo". So now I believe I finally have a name for my unknown plants! However, Len does not mention the C.P. Bailes collection that is pictured in Chahinian's book as being S. powysii, but I assume that is what it is.

Below are some pictures of the plants I have in cultivation. This Sansevieria is quite slow, the leaf Boris gave me sat for over one year without doing anything, then it slowly started to produce plantlets. I removed the largest plantlet to an individual pot, and the original leaf has now started to grow a new plantlet in addition to the one I left attached to it when I removed the largest plantlet. I have been growing this plant for over five years, and in my hot climate (NE Brazil) things tend to grow fast, but this sans takes its time and it is not in a rush to be bigger or grow any faster.

There seems to be a little bit of variation between different collections of the species. My plants have wider leaves than what is stated in the original description of S. powysii, but then they are young plants, and I believe the leaves will be narrower once they mature. The color of my plants is a dull green, not a glaucous bluish color seen in the pictures of the original description, nor the C.P. Bailes collection shown in Chahinian's book.

Cheers,

Marlon.