Even botanists can be surprised at the sheer variety of a houseplant often known only for being indestructible.
The genus Sansevieria had never really spoken to the botanist Chad Husby, until it did — loudly.
But not in the way it usually ingratiates itself to potential adopters, who hear that the most familiar one of all, the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), with its vertical, swordlike succulent foliage, is indestructible, maybe the lowest-care of low-care houseplants.
Dr. Husby, chief explorer for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Fla., heard Sansevieria’s call in 2019, during an International Palm Society meeting in the San Diego area. At a tour of a member’s garden, another attendee commented on a handsome, silvery Sansevieria growing there. The host gifted the man and Dr. Husby each a cutting of the rare plant, which looked nothing like the image of the genus he held in his mind.
The horticulture industry’s emphasis on the generic snake plant, he said, “leads people to totally misjudge the genus — which happened to me for most of my life as well.”
But no more. That silvery specimen catalyzed in him the same curiosity and craving that it has in recent years in keen houseplant collectors, sending them scouring specialty catalogs and Etsy listings for species and cultivars that are anything but generic looking.
Even within the species S. trifasciata there is variation. Beyond the upright, linear-leaved types, others of medium stature display wider foliage; the smallest form ground-hugging rosettes.
