This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Ref. S. schweinfurthii and "stunted sansevierias"

Hi all,

Stephen, I have dealt with Sansevierias for almost twenty years, possibly 
before you were born or you were 2-3 years old then, and I have never heard 
of or seen a "stunted Sansevieria". Sansevierias, as other plants, may go 
juvenile, and I know of at least ten of them that have, material for an 
upcoming article. One can never stunt a Sansevieria by any mechanical or 
fertilizing trick.


The fact that Teketay said that Sansevieria schweinfurthii is a synonym for 
S. erythraeae does not make it correct. Needless to say the fact that it was 
published in my journal does not mean that I agree with it.
In fact, I just studied an inflorescence of S. schweinfurthii , with the help 
of Alan Butler, and it is certainly a plant on its own standing. The 
invalidity of the name is due to the fact that there is no Latin description, 
required at the time of publishing. There is no reason whatsoever to change 
the name.
Simply because Schweinfurth brought the plant from Eritrea to Egypt and 
called it S. cylindrica does not make it the plant that Täckholm and Drar 
described.
So, Sansevieria schweinfurthii 'Variegated'  is also a combination that needs 
to be kept.

To do correct taxonomic work, and I told you this many years ago, one requires

a) investigation of papers
b) study of live plants
c) study of plants in habitat
d) study of herbarium specimens

Stephen you are only doing a) in a very commendable way. But this is not 
enough.
b), c) and d) are as important and it would be nice, and absolutely 
necessary, that you do b), c) and d) as well. There is no short cut. 
Taxonomic work is not the result of expedient elucubrations but of thorough, 
patient work. Otherwise you are only adding to the confusion.  Mats Thulin, 
whose work you called a mess, did a) c) and d), so did Teketay.
So please, slow up your race for bringing new things up and go back to the 
drawing board and by all means do not give advice on questions asked unless 
you have actual experience on them.

Cheers

Juan
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index