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SANSEVIERIA guineensis Willd. [family DRACAENACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol 7, page 331, (1898) Author: (By J. G. BAKER.)
Names
SANSEVIERIA guineensis Willd. [family DRACAENACEAE], Sp. Plant. ii. 159. —Gawl. in Bot. Mag. t. 1179; Red. Lil. t. 330; Kunth, Enum. v. 16; Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc. xiv. 547; Kew Bulletin, 1887, May, 5 and 3, fig. 1; Schweinf. in Bull. Herb. Boiss. ii. App. ii. 79; Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 144, t. 5, figs. A–F. Aletris hyacinthoides Linn. var. guineensis [family MELANTHIACEAE], Sp. Plant. ed. 2, 456. Aletris guineensis Jacq. [family MELANTHIACEAE], Hort. Vind. i. 36, t. 84. Acyntha guineensis Medic. [family ], Theod. 76.
Information
Rootstock wide-creeping, as thick as a man's finger. Leaves 3–6 to a node, lanceolate, nearly flat above the base, 3–4 ft. long, 2 1/2–5 in. broad at the middle, more or less distinctly mottled with white, sometimes bordered with a thin line of red within the white edge. Peduncle 1–1 1/2 ft. long, with 3–4 scariose bract-leaves. Raceme dense, 1 1/2–2 ft. long, about 3 in. diam.; flowers 3–6 in a cluster; bracts small, oblong-lanceolate; pedicels 1/6– 1/4 in. long, articulated at the middle. Perianth 1 1/2–2 in. long, white, tinged with green or brown; lobes as long as the tube. Stamens as long as the perianth-lobes. Style finally much exserted.
Distribution
Congo Lower Guinea Laurent!German East Africa Mozamb. Dist. Zanguebar, Stewart!Portuguese East Africa Mozamb. Dist. Lower Zambesi; between Shiramba and Shigogo, Kirk, 178!Eritrea Nile Land Saganeiti, 6500 ft., Schweinfurth & Riva, 1270! Mogod Valley, Schweinfurth & Riva, 1609! near Acrour, Schweinfurth & Riva, 1763! Keren, Steudner, 475! Beccari, 198!Somaliland Nile Land Golis Range, Mrs. Lort Phillips!British East Africa Nile Land Jur; Seriba Agad, Schweinfurth, 1658! Jur Ghattas, Schweinfurth, 1883! Madi, Speke & Grant, 526! Rabai Hills, near Mombasa, Taylor!Sierra Leone Upper Guinea Sugarloaf Mountain, Scott-Elliot, 3980! on rocks by the River Scarcies at Sasseni, Scott-Elliot, 4532! and without precise locality, Afzelius!Niger Upper Guinea Nupe, Barter, 1508!Fernando Po Upper Guinea Barter, 2060!
Notes
Now widely cultivated throughout the Tropics. For an account of the uses of this and the other species, see Kew Bulletin, 1887, May, and Gürke in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. B. 364–368. S. lætevirens, glauca and polyphylla of Haworth are probably garden forms of this species.
SANSEVIERIA guineensis Willd. [family DRACAENACEAE]
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