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Notes and Speculations on Sansevieria Chimeras - DC Speirs
National Cactus & Succulent Journal, Vol. 34/1, 1979

As a collector of succulents, I am biased against variegated plants,
crests, monstrous forms, and unnecessary grafts done for the sake of
grafting. Atypical forms are indicative of the infantile stages of this
particular hobby and older horticultural specialities have long since
passed this phase. Perhaps, as time goes on, growers will forget about
these grotesques and concentrate on growing the true species to match the
habitat forms.

But if any succulent can be stated as the most common in cultivation then
the ubiquitous S. trifasciata var laurentii has the best claim. Putting up
with flood, drought, blinding light, darkest gloom, cold draughts and
desiccating heat, this plant can only be killed by a poor grower indeed!

This variety is a chimera, a monster with two bodies inside of one, and
cannot be propagated by cuttings but only by division; in other words,
divide to multiply. The yellow margins are genetically different from the
green tissues and best show this difference by lack of chlorophyll. The
type species has been known for over 200 years but the chimera only since
1903, when it was introduced by Emile Laurent from what was then
Stanleyville in the Belgian Congo (Brown 1915).

NE Brown, of Kew, stated that leaf cuttings will only produce the type
species (as is well known today), and went on to mention that plants
arising directly from the yellow margins were also green. This seems
curious when the later studies of Blaydes (1944) are considered, where leaf
cuttings developed roots only from the green tissue. Rhizomes then
developed from the root bases and eventually gave rise to normal green
plants. Blaydes also took cuttings from which the green tissue was removed
at the base, leaving only yellow tissue in contact with the rooting medium.
Roots, then rhizomes, developed from the yellow tissue and the new leaves
from the rhizomes were entirely yellow. When the yellow plants were severed
from the cuttings, they died of starvation in 4-6 weeks, due to lack of
chlorophyll. I have been unsuccessful in repeating this experiment so
perhaps some readers of this journal might like to attempt it. If a pure
yellow plant can be produced it would be possible to graft it on a green
plant, if not the leaves then the rhizomes, and thus save it for those who
collect such oddities.

The cultivar “Craigii” has white margins and is not as common as its yellow
counterpart or even the green type (Boutard 1953). White is not necessarily
desirable on Sansevieria as it can be a symptom of cold injury. White
lesions are produced on leaves when temperatures go down to 2-8C and may
not show up until a month after the initial damage. The lesions are
enhanced by high nitrogen and potassium levels in the growing medium but
are minimized when nitrogen is close to zero (Marlott 1974).

The gens as a whole occupies diverse habitats from arid-lands to tropical
rain-forest to coral rock. Speciation is still under way and it seems
probable that hybridisation can be carried out between widely separated
species (Menzel and Pate 1960).

References

Blaydes, GW, Chimeras of Lycopersicon and Sansevieria (Abstract), Amer.
Jour. Bot. 31: 13 (supp.), 1944
Boutard, C. Sansevierias. Gard. Chron. 133: 213-214, 1953
Brown, NE Sansevieria. A monograph of all the known species. Kew Bull. pp.
185-261, 1915
Marlott, RB Chilling injury in Sansevieria, Hort. Science 9: 539-540, 1974
Menzel, MY and Pate JB, Chromosomes and crossing behaviour of some species
of Sansevieria. Amer. Jour. Bot. 47: 230-238, 1960



Frances Verrity
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