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roberto2_gw

Sansevieria Online.de

roberto2
10 years ago

Yesterday I discovered the new online journal "Sansevieria Online.de" ( http://www.sansevieria-online.de/doku.php ). It is an all German magazine, created by Peter Mansfeld, author of the latest, controversial, Sans book. In its Nð1 issue, Mansfeld drops the bomb: the rediscovery of S.burmanica. This is the most elusive species in that most complex group of Sans. coming from those mostly unknown regions of Asia. Need I say more? Up to now, I had never seen nor a living plant, neither a reliable illustration of this species. Science has only the poor b & w sketch in Brown's Monograph ( p.229) as a visual identification aid. More : Brown's description is quite puzzling , as the type plant, (thankfully reproduced in the journal) is a totally different plant . All the leaves of the specimen are more than 1 m. long, it shows a well developed stem, and no flower neither a spike is present. Mansfeld shows a single plant (the "Flensburg Klon") cultivated in Germany. The plant is ,apparently, not zeylanica, nor roxburghiana, but... doesn't grow in Burma! It was ,actually, collected in Southern Sri Lanka by Gerhard Ott in 1982. Unfortunately, the two pics of the plant habitat , while showing a signpost with fascinating ideograms, don't reveal any Sans in sight. This plant has two typical marks that link it to the Asian group: its small flowers (less than 1 cm. long) and the dark green longitudinal lines on the back of the leaves. I will be happy to know some more opinions on this species.

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