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Re: [SANS] Sanseveria dawei

Norma, i am not going to edit what you wrote because it all seems
relevant...do you mean that you got Sansevieria daweii from Grigsby, so
named as waited...and it turned out to be Mason-Congo? Please believe me
when i say i wish to cast no aspersions on an alleged mislabelling of
plants in a genus...which for one so lacking in a cheering public, is in
remarkable flux! it is just that the plant  Dave obtained from a fellow
named MASON, who collected it in the Congo, seems very different to me. i
believe i had what was labelled daweii years before i saw 'Mason-Congo' at
Grigsby's. and i found the two quite remarkably different.

in the past 25 years, Sansevierias have been in Liliaceae, Agavaceae, and
......who knows what i missed. i am still amazed that certain ones were
stuffed into BOOPHANE when they were first discovered.  Where is the BULB?

Many succulent members of the broad tribal heading   of Liliaceae have been
in and out of various subsets.
and so it is with every single genus of plant in which I have been
involved.  The Bamboo Wars are raging now. OK, they are not lilies, but,
darn it, they are Monocots!

I suppose we will all get more news as it develops. I would not be a
taxonomist for all the tea  in china. it is like being the King's
Poison-taster.

it is suddenly cold and all the variegated plants are being moved into the
bathroom and kitchen, as the propane heaters are, um, not up yet.

hermine

At 10:32 PM 12/9/98 -0500, Norma Lewis wrote:
>I am going to copy this right out of the NE Brown #46. Pg.67
>
>S. Dawei Stapf in Journ. Linn. Soc.vol. xxxvii, p. 529 (see Plates). Stemless,
>with
>a creeping rootstock up to 1 inch or more thick.  Leaves of adult plants 2-3
>to a growth, ascending or suberect, smooth above, slightly rough beneath, 2-5
>ft. long, 2 1/4-1 1/2 in. (or more?) broad, elongate-lanceolate, tapering from
>above the middle upwards to an acute apex and downwards into a short or long
>concave-channelled petiole or sometimes almost without a petiole, uniformly
>dull deep green and somewhat glaucous on both sides (Dawe), but in living
>plants seen, variegated with pale green on both sides when young, margins
>reddish-brown.  Flower-stem 1 1/2 -
>2 1/2 ft. high, with 5-6 ovate or lanceolate acuminate membranous white
>sheaths on
>the basal third, and a rather compact spike-like raceme of flower-clusters
>above.
>
>Bracts 1/3 to 2/3 in. long, the secondary being about half as large as the
>primary and conspicuous, ovate or ovate-oblong, acute or subobtuse, greenish
>or tinged with dull purplish.  Flowers 3-4 in cluster, white; pedicels  2-3
>lin. long, jointed close under the flower; tube 3/4-1 inches long;  lobes
>2/3-7/8 inches long.
>
>Uganda.  Busiro, Dawe, 109! Entebbe, Matron, 3!
>
>Described from the type specimens and living plants.  There are also specimens
>at Kew collected between Voi and the Taita Hills in British East Africa
>(Grenfell 2 & 12), and another received from the Imperial Institute under No.
>21342 as the "Tour. fibre plant from Uganda."  A living plant at Kew has
>leaves green or bluish-green on both sides without markings when full grown,
>but when young they are sometimes irregularly marked with pale green spots or
>bands and usually with a distinct glaucous "bloom" they vary from 2 1/2 up to
>4 3/4 in. in breadth.  The flower-stem is
>of a lighter green than the leaves, with indications of being tinged with
>purple where
>exposed to the sun.  Bracts up to 1/3 in. long, reflexed or very spreading,
>ovate-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, acute. Tube of the flower about 1 1/6
>in. long; lobes about 1 in. long.  In all other particulars it agrees with S.
>Dawei.
>The photographs of this species have been kindly sent by Mr. T.D. Maitland,
>Dictrict Agricultural Officer, Uganda, and were taken from plants growing in a
>native compound.
>
>I purchased this plant as "Mason Congo" in 1978 and 27 years later Juan came
>over
>and reidentified it as S.Dawei.   Respectively submitted Norma Lewis
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