The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Streptocarpus
Also called Plants, Plant
Streptocarpus is a genus of flowering plants in the Gesneriaceae family, native to Africa and Madagascar, with orchid-like tubular flowers. Commonly grown members are the hybrid Cape primroses sold as houseplants; the key to success is avoiding waterlogged soil and excess heat.
Streptocarpus (from Ancient Greek στρεπτός (streptós), "twisted", and καρπός (karpós), "fruit") is an Afrotropical genus of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae. The genus is native to Afromontane biotopes from central, eastern and southern Africa, including Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. The flowers are five-petalled, salverform tubes, almost orchid-like in appearance, and hover or arch over the plant, while the pointed, elongate fruit is of a helical form similar to that of the "tusk" of a narwhal. In the wild, species can be found growing on shaded rocky hillsides or cliffs, on the ground, in rock crevices, and almost anywhere the seed can germinate and grow. For the home, there are now many hybrids of various colours and forms available.
Each grower will have their own preferences for cultivation. The details given below are a tested general guide, but Streptocarpus will do quite well on either side of these optimums.
The two main things to remember when growing Streptocarpus are that they do not like soil that is too wet, and they do not like it too hot.
Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia · Streptocarpus glandulosissimus · Streptocarpus goetzeanus · Streptocarpus inconspicuus · African Violet · False African Violet
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Streptocarpus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
