Interesting Plant: Saintpaulia ‘Rebel’s Splatter Kake’

I never knew the Latin name for African Violets, even though my grandmother grew them religiously when I was growing up in Ohio. She had a 3-tier indoor planter covered with them. This particular Saintpaulia caught my eye in my travels though Pinterest and gave me and easy excuse and another entry for this Interesting Plant series. 

Saintpaulia

Discovered via Pinterest user Ammar Aue

Saintpaulias, commonly known as African violets, are a genus of 6–20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae, native toTanzania 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.

Saintpaulias grow from 6–15 cm tall and 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. — Wikipedia.org 

More information on Stenocarpus sinuatus:

From Amazon.com:
 

Previously in the Interesting Plant series: 

Interesting Plant is a series from A Gardener’s Notebook blog and podcast that highlights the most interesting plants I find in my Internet and real-world travels — Douglas

Read more on this topic:

  1. Interesting Plant: Dianthus Barbathus “Green Ball” or “Green Trick”
  2. Interesting Plant: Firewheel Tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus)
  3. Interesting Plant: Lupine “Sunrise” (Lupinus hartwegii)
  4. Interesting Plant: Lovely silver-tinged fern on campus of Oberlin College, Ohio
  5. Interesting Plant: Agastache ‘Aztec Rose’