The genus Sansevieria had never really spoken to the botanist Chad Husby – loud.
But not as it usually interferes for potential users who hear that the best known of all, the snake plant (Sansevieria Trifasciata), with its vertical, sword-like succulent leaves, perhaps the lowest care of low low care of the houseplants .
Dr. Husby, Chief Explorer for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, heard the call from Sansevieria in 2019 during a meeting of the International Palm Society in the San Diego region. On a tour of a member's garden, another participant commented on a pretty, silver Sansevieria that grows there. The landlord gave the man and Dr. Husby each cutting the rare plant, which looked nothing like the image of the genus he kept in his head.
The focus of the horticultural industry on the generic snake plant said: “If people live the genus completely – which happened to me most of my life.”
But not more. This silver specimen catalyzed the same curiosity and the same desire that it has in sharp houseplant collectors in recent years and search for the special catalogs and etsy listings for types and varieties that are anything but generic appearance.
There are also variations within Art S. Trifasciata. Beyond the upright, linear -owed types, others show a wider leaves with medium stature; The smallest forming rosettes.
Elsewhere in the genus, these sculptural plants range from significantly vertical, accessible stature and low, nest -like deciduous hills. Leaves can be flat or wavy or even cylindrical and shaped as tusks, arranged in a configuration such as a fan or maybe an pineapple top or the most emphatic cockroaches. Some are near alabaster or silvery, others the darkest of the greens, and there are a number of options, striped or torched in gold, white or silver. Some like S. Hallii Pink Bat are even colored with pink.
It didn't take long after this event in San Diego when Dr. Husby attended other collectors and learned plants and concentrated on unusual types. Then it got serious in 2021. He and a colleague flew to the west and filled a rental car with specimens from the botanical gardens in the Huntington near Pasadena and from two stops in Tucson: the personal collection of Alan Myklebust, an officer of the International Sansevieria Society, and Arid Lands -Grüchsgrün -Knd guests. They drove back to Fairchild by moving.
The 83 hectare botanical garden and the scientific research facility, which specializes in the preservation of rare tropical plants, had only a handful of Sansevieria. Now, not in pots as houseplants, but growing in the ground in the prominent public exhibition, there are more than 200 accessions that represent 46 species.
Südflorida is the only place in the continental United States, where practically all of these approximately zone 10 Hary plants are happy all year round, said Dr. Husby, although certain species are adapted to the conditions in the Los Angeles pool and parts of Arizona.
But most of us know them as houseplants, and according to a research paper at the University of Florida from 1982, Sansevieria has been grown in commercial kindergartens in the state since at least the 1920s.
In contrast to other plant groups with which he had worked with, this grew for Dr.
In Sansevieria's home area, he did not become bodial, which “is really concentrated in East Africa,” he said. “Basically, from Somalia to Mozambique, the main concentration of diversity is really.” Some species occur in West Africa, including S. Trifasciata or in southern Africa (S. Hallii); A few outliers come from the Arabian Peninsula and even to Myanmar.
He didn't have to look that far.
“To see that the Sansevieria world already had all this incredible diversity in the hobbyist world,” said Dr. Husby. For many things, it was simply a variety name or a number; In what kind of way they fit was not aligned.
On the subject of taxonomy, most of the Sansevieria have recently been included in the Dracaena genus based on the latest DNA analysis, with the name Sansevieria today considered an older synonym. Whatever name you think, these are juicy members of the Asparagus family (Sparagaceae), which may make sense if you saw the white flowers in January, which are more common on plants as houseplants, followed by orange berries.
Dr. Husby and the International Sansevieria Society He is a board member of One Mind. “Because it is such a unmistakable group for horticulture,” he said, “I think I prefer to stick to the old name. It describes some special properties that are really relevant for us as a gardener. “
An example: Sansevierias can spread out of leaf cutting – like the silver piece he wore from San Diego in his suitcase. “As far as I can judge,” he said, “this is unique in Sansevierias and not in the other Dracaenas that don't seem to allow it.”
A cross-section that is cut from a sheet will have new growth in time as long as its polarity is observed on the right. The end of each piece that was originally closer to the root is what is in the growing medium. Let the cuttings look for a day or two so that the cut canal kallus runs.
Sansevierias also have another difference: they grow from rhizomes, “these creeping underground stalks,” said Dr. Husby. “I don't know a Dracaena who does it.”
The enthusiastic rhizomes enable an even simpler method of spread – simple division. For varied types, this is actually the preferred way, since rooted cuttings often send new shoots that are just green.
Care and feeding
What most people know about the classic snake plant is this reputation to withstand neglect. (Why Aspidistra and not Sansevieria claim the right to the common name.)
“It is a little difficult to write about the cultural requirements of Sansevierias because they hardly have anything,” Hermine Stover wrote in 1983 in “The Sansevieria Book” to strengthen the neglected stereotype.
There are better reasons to adopt one – and better care than treating it like a non -living decor. It will live by descending in a dark corner and rarely irrigated, but mere survival is not a sign that it thrives. It only dies slower than most leaf room plants under the same abusive conditions.
Another note: If you did justice to S. Trifasciata, this may not be a victory, but simply that it has been upwards or etitiary to look for more light.
“They appreciate as much light as they can give them, especially the filtered light,” said Dr. Husby, which causes these generally slow producers to accelerate.
He recommends providing a well -tasting soil to which he adds a fertilizer with slow release. Moderate irrigation may be sufficient in cooler, lower months; They like the combination of cool and wet. But under warm, bright conditions – for example, when potted plants are outdoor outdoor outdoor outdoor, Sansevieria want frequent irrigation.
89 species were in the reference in 2022 “The genus Sansevieria: A image guide for the type” by Robert H. Webb, owner of Arid Lands, and Leonard E. Newton. “I think we are probably getting closer to 100 species,” said Dr. Husby. The list of varieties is even longer.
Maybe Dr. Husby's favorite variety Chanin, a hybrid of a Thai breeder with distinctive “short leaves that form an elegant spiral that is rigidly arranged,” he said. The wavy leaves of another Thai hybrid, dancing dragons, also justifies attention.
“These are those when they grow them in lower light, they become greener,” he said. “But if you get them out in full sun, you get this almost alabaster color.”
Another striking Thai hybrid, which is looking for Iceman, with random narrow green lines that oppose its thick, silver leaves.
Different species have cylindrical leaves, including S. Cylindrica, which is sometimes referred to as the popular Boncel variety, which is sometimes referred to as Seestern -Sansevieria.
Sansevieria Stuckyi, the elefant -tusk Sansevieria with its very vertical leaves, is another extraordinary cylindrical choice, said Dr. Husby; Its leaves can be six feet big or more and a few centimeters thick. S. Powellii can reach a similar height, its leaves are arranged in a fan -like manner by a prominent vertical tribe.
Different varieties of S. Masoniana, the well-named Walfell-Sanssevieria for the sufficient shape of each sheet, can be marked with exceptionally yellow stripes or thick vertical ligaments made of white or in silver patterns.
So what will it be? Will your own collection possibly concentrate on extremes of the leaf color or on a variety of shapes or variations of the cylindrical leaves?
You saw a Sansevieria, you didn't see them all.