What is Saintpaulia?

Saintpaulia is a plant genus that includes six species belonging to the Gesneriaceae family. The type of Saintpaulia ionantha or African purple is part of this family. Most wild species have purple and blue flowers with a different pattern of gesneriad family of two upper lobes and three lower lobes. Modern hybrids have different colors such as white, yellow and red. These flowering plants are originally from the rainforests of the Nguro Mountains in Tanzania and Southeast Kenya. Their hairy leaves are usually rounded to oval and 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 9 cm) long. Five -kiloked flowers that can bloom all year round grow in clusters of three or more, which are blue to purple. They may be resting from flowering by retention of water. New hybrid plants produce individual or double flowers with many different variegated or solid color such as pink, lavender and cream. Can be promoted from seeds or leaf proceedings. Cut leaves with 0.8 to 2 inches (2 to 5 cm)ou inserted into a watering mixture or compost. In general, it takes 10 to 12 weeks before germinating new leaves.

in cultivation, Saintpaulia plants need a lot of care. Many indirect sunlight, about 12 hours each day, can lead to long -term flowering. These plants are best grown in bleak mixtures without soil, but if you use the soil, it should keep it somewhat dry. The correct balance of soil moisture is essential because these plants will rot with excess watering, but are also sensitive to soil dryness and hardness. Watering is best done directly on the soil, as the water droplets color and destroy the leaves.

Rod is a name after Baron Walter von Saint Paul-ilairere, who discovered them in 1892 when he was a Tanga commissioner in Tanzania. He sent the seeds of African purple, which he called violets Usamra, to his father in Germany. When the seeds reached Germany, the name was changesSaintpaulia , which eventually became a family under which it was classified Saintpaulia Ionantha or African purple. Since 2010, more than 2,000 cultivars have come from the gender, but most of them come from Saintpaulia Ionantha .