Synonyms: Sansevieria APNI*
Description: Shrubby perennials, usually with very short stems, often stoloniferous.
Leaves erect, succulent, flat, terete or semi-terete, fibrous, margins entire.
Inflorescence terminal, racemose or paniculate; flowers clustered in alternate axils of scarious bracts; pedicels articulate. Tepals united at base into a tube, linear, equal, recurved at anthesis. Stamens inserted in top of perianth tube; filaments filiform; anthers medifexed. Style filiform; stigma simple, slightly thickened, entire.
Fruit a berry; seeds 1–3, ± globose.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 180 species, Africa & tropical Asia. Australia: 1 species (naturalised).
Sometimes placed in the segregate family Dracaenaceae. Sansevieria is now generally accepted as a synonym of Dracaena.
Text by N. Frischknecht; updated by R.L. Barrett, April 2021.
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Dracaena trifasciata |
|
