Saintpaulia ionantha is the “original” African Violet, the species that took the horticultural world by storm when introduced to cultivation in the 19th Century. Many other collections were subsequently introduced from Kenya and Tanzania, and often given different species names.
Modern research and analysis has found that several of the differently-named species were best understood as variants of S. ionantha, and have therefore been subsumed within that species. Those with significant morphological or genetic differences have been identified as subspecies of S. ionantha, under their original species names, and are separately listed on the GRW. A single former species, Saintpaulia diplotricha, is now understood as a variety of the original species, and is now Str. ionanthus ssp. ionanthus var. diplotrichus, and is also listed separately.
Note that in botanical Latin the suffix “us” is used for species when listed as Stretocarpus, reflecting the masculine form of Streptocarpus rather than the “a” for feminine Saintpaulia.
The photo featured above is understood to be the “original” Saintpaulia ionantha, here named according to modern taxonomy as Streptocarpus ionanthus ssp. ionanthus var. ionanthus – it’s ionanthus all the way down!
There are clones (cl.) of desirable variants of Str. ionanthus ssp. ionanthus var. ionanthus, and links to photos of these are below.
- A photo of the beautiful whole plant featured above
- A photo of another plant, likely also the original species, exhibited at the 2021 virtual show of the Gesneriad Society
- A photo of a prize-winning plant of Str. ionanthus ssp. ionanthus var. ionanthus cl. ‘House of Amani’
- A close view of the flowers on cl. ‘House of Amani’
- Another show plant of cl. ‘House of Amani’
- Saintpaulia ionanthus ssp. ionanthus var. ionanthus cl. tongwensis is another beautiful variant within the original ionanthus group
- The flowers on cl. tongwensis
- Another prize-winning show plant of cl. tongwensis