Reinhild Raistrick returned to her native Tanzania to visit the original locations of the wild African violet. With much excitement, she returned to a country that had been home to her family since 1895. In no time at all, she was once again speaking fluent Kiswahili and Kishambaa and was quickly accepted as a “local”. East African specialists at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew and an expert of the plant family Gesneriaceae at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, provided Reinhild with information about where African violets were known to exist in the East Usambara mountains.
Reinhild painted every known species of African violet growing in the East and West Usambara Mountains and in the “coastal region of Tanga and Pangani Districts.” In her book, African Violets, Reinhild features 29 species of Saintpaulia. Each species was painted in-situ in Tanzania. She includes with each painting, a written description of each plant and where it was found. Separate pen and ink illustrations of the leaf, hairs, and fruit capsule of each species are also included.
The wild African violet species in this unique monograph are: Saintpaulia ionantha, Saintpaulia confusa, Saintpaulia difficilis, Saintpaulia magungensis, Saintpaulia grotei, Saintpaulia magungensis var. occidentalis, Saintpaulia orbiscularis, Saintpaulia tongwensis, Saintpaulia grandifolia, Saintpaulia goetzeana, Saintpaulia diplotricha, Saintpaulia magungensis var. minima, Saintpaulia pendula, Saintpaulia pendula var. kizarae, Saintpaulia intermedia, Saintpaulia tongwensis, Saintpaulia orbicularis var. pupurea, Saintpaulia sp. from Mafi Hills, Saintpaulia shumensis, Saintpaulia velutina, Saintpaulia brevipilosa, Saintpaulia nitida, Saintpaulia rupicola, Saintpaulia teitensis, Saintpaulia sp. Kacharoroni, Saintpaulia sp. Mwachi, Saintpaulia inconspicua, Saintpaulia pusilla, Saintpaulia species (unidentified, found in Uluguru Mountains in 2005).
While in Tanzania, Reinhild also painted 21 other flowering plants growing in the Usambara rainforest and includes these paintings in her book. You may be familiar with some of the species as they are often grown as houseplants (e.g., Impatiens and Begonia) .
Reinhild’s monograph on the genus Saintpaulia is a one-of-a-kind reference. She hopes her book will bring attention to the fragile African violet species growing in the wild and demonstrate the need for a botanical garden in East Africa, Europe or the U.S., to create a complete collection of the wild African violet before all species fall victim to the effects of deforestation.
African Violets (2006) is available for purchase at ArtPlantae Books. This is a special order title. Availability subject to change.
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