pronounced: gez-ner-ee-AY-see-eye
The African violet family was named in honour of Conrad Gesner, (1516–1565), Swiss physician and naturalist. It is a highly diverse family, distributed throughout the tropics and into the north and south temperate zones, with plants that are often very beautiful, and amenable to both indoor and outdoor cultivation where reasonable conditions are provided. Members of the family are herbaceous plants with velvety or fuzzy leaves and attractive flowers. The African violet itself, Saintpaulia ionantha, is one of the most popular of all house plants.
Photograph by רנדום (own work), via Wikimedia Commons
