Saintpaulias, commonly known as African violets, are a genus of 6–20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae, native to Tanzania and adjacent southeastern Kenya in eastern tropical Africa. Typically the African violet is a common household indoor plant but can also be an outdoor plant. Several of the species and subspecies are endangered, and many more are threatened, due to their native cloud forest habitats being cleared for agriculture.
Characteristics
Saintpaulias, which grow from 6–15 cm tall, can be anywhere from 6–30 cm wide. The leaves are rounded to oval, 2.5–8.5 cm long with a 2–10 cm petiole, finely hairy, and have a fleshy texture. The flowers are 2–3 cm in diameter, with a five-lobed velvety corolla (“petals”), and grow in clusters of 3–10 or more on slender stalks called peduncles. Wild species can have violet, purple, pale blue, or white flowers.
Temperature
Saintpaulias are highly sensitive to temperature changes, especially rapid leaf cooling. Spilling cold water on African violet leaves causes discoloration. This is thought to be because rapid leaf cooling causes cell vacuole collapse in the palisade mesophyll cells.
Propagation
African violets are commonly propagated asexually. Plants can be divided into smaller daughter plants or even grown from leaf cuttings. Growing African violets from seed is rare and most commercially available plants are produced from cuttings and tissue culture.
These do really well for us on a window ledge in our bathroom. Lovely shots, Aletta!
Thanks for taking part in Floral Friday Fotos and I look forward to your next contribution.
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Thank you!!
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Beautiful! I’ve never had good luck with these…
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Thank you! They are only happy when you leave them in one spot
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thanks you inspired me to post flowers on friday too!
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I am so glad!!! 😀
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Hello Aletta,
Please come and have a look at the new meme on Saturdays,
Saturday Silhouettes:
http://nixpixmix.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/saturday-silhouettes-1.html
Kind regards,
Nick
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Thank you, Nick!
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Lovely post Aletta
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Thank you so much!!
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Your post brought back memories of my sweet mother-in-law. Her kitchen windowsills were always filled with african violets.
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That is so sweet, Karen!
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There was also a few years in the past when i was growing African Violets, and definitely i was so happy with them. I love how we snatched or ask some old leaves from garden shows and were able to make them grow till flowering. Those were college days, now i forgot why we lost them.
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We did exactly the same!! 🙂
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My ma was so lief daarvoor
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Myne ook 🙂
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So pretty, Aletta. My mom used to have so many of these plants in her sewing room, whilst she was still able to live on her own. Thanks for the sweet memories. 🙂
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Ah!!! I am glad it brought back those memories Sylvia!
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very lovely!
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Thank you, Anne!
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love this flower, Aletta, and we call it African Violets, too. my Mom used to have them in the Philippines. 🙂
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That’s very interesting, lolaWi!
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