Common name: Spear Sansevieria, Spear Sanseviera
Botanical name: Sansevieria cylindrica Family: Liliaceae (lily family)
Spear Sanseviera, a native of South Tropical Africa and Natal, is one of the
more interesting sansevieras. The cylindrical spearlike, rigid leaves reach
about 5 feet in height and are about 1-¼ inches in diameter. Like all
sansevieras,
they are easy to culture and well suited to the home environment. The
cylindrial nature of the leaf apparently occurs due to a suppression of
dorsi-ventral symmetry, which produces a true top and bottom in most leaves.
Instead, the "precursor tip" produced during the earliest stages of leaf
development (usually small in most species) enlarges without breaking radial
symmetry.
In spring it blooms with 1-½ inch flowers which are white tinged with pink.
The flowers open only at night. Spear Sansevieria is a low
maintenance plant. It only needs watering once every three weeks and thrives
at room temperature and doesn’t mind the sun either.
| Photographed in Jamia Millia, Delhi. |
Identification credit: R.K. Nimai Singh
|
ntroduced