SAVE AFRICAN VIOLETS FROM EXTINCTION NOW!

AFRICAN VIOLETS

With voluptuous blossoms & lush velvety leaves, African Violets (Saintpaulias) are among the most beautiful plants on the planet! And while we love them, we face losing them forever.

Saintpaulias are a genus of 6–20 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants, native to Tanzania and southeastern Kenya. Wild African violets are endangered largely because their native cloud forest habitats are being cleared, at alarming rates, for agriculture.

Even though African Violets also thrive indoors, under the right conditions, keeping them alive in the wild is important. The African Violet Society of America is an international society of plant enthusiasts who promote the cultivation of African violets as houseplants and raise awareness about the beauty and place in our world.

Recently conducted research is now shedding light and offering solutions both for wild African Violet survival and commercial growers, so that they can better cultivate plants with desired aesthetic qualities, or even allow for new possibilities — varieties of the flower that have never been seen before.

From the standpoint of conservation, sequencing the genome of a single plant can provide insight into how the species’ population fluctuated over time, offering valuable information for environmental stewardship.

With many species and subspecies now classified as endangered or threatened, without these interventions, African Violets could soon become extinct.

Native to the Eastern Arc mountaintops of Tanzania and adjacent southeastern Kenya, a biodiversity hotspot, African Violets are losing ground as their cloud forest habitats are being cleared for agriculture.

There is a concentration of species in the Nguru mountains of Tanzania, with colors ranging from pure white to soft pinks to brilliant purples.

A team of scientists at University at Buffalo has crowdfunded an initiative to sequence the African Violet genome, which can help lead to efforts that can save these beautiful plants from extinction.

The research, led by biologists Charlotte Lindqvist and Victor Albert, will first focus on Saintpaulia ionantha. Aureliano Bombarely Gomez, a genobotanist at Virginia Tech, is also contributing. Their mission is to map the African Violet’s DNA, to gain insights that can benefit both breeding and conservation.

Understanding how the African Violet has adapted in the past to environmental changes can help us understand how the African violet might adapt or respond to future habitat encroachment and climate change.

Check out the African Violet study video.

Read more about Ultra Violet in  Ultra Violet Trips to Book Now!,  Beautiful Ultra Violet Jewel Bedazzlers, and  Ultra Beautiful Ultra Violet Musings.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Boaz Ng. “African Violets.”
2. Image: by photogramma1. “African Violet.”
3. Image: by Charlotte Lindqvist, of University at Buffalo. Usambara Mountains, Eastern Arc Mountain Range. Tanzania.
4. Image: by Al. “Amour Elite.” African Violet.
5. Image: by Charlotte Lindqvist, of University at Buffalo. "The African Violet.” Saintpaulia ionantha. Tanzania.
6. Image: by lovinlife642000. “Violet Flower.”
7. Image: by Andrew Malone. “African Violet.”
8. Image: by Andrew Gustar. “African Violet.”
9. Image: by Chrys Omori. “Violet.”
10. Image: by Emma L Brown. “African Violets.”
11. Image: “Kitulo National Park, Sea of Flowers.” Courtesy of Tanzania Tourist Board.