Sansevieria in Moscow

These Sansevieria container plants were encountered in a shopping centre adjacent to the Red Square in Moscow, making South Africans feel at home.

The colour-banded leaves appear quite similar to the South African species, Sansevieria hyacinthoides that grows as far north as tropical Africa. Since Russians have many options for picking their Sansevieria potted plants, this may well be another plant. Many of the more than 60 Sansevieria species worldwide are indigenous to warmer parts of Asia.

These plants are generally robust growers that require limited care and not too much water. They are popular worldwide for use both indoors and out, on account of their looks, manageable growth habit, air-cleaning capacity and production of oxygen at night as well as in daylight.

In the South African bush Sansevieria leaves are browsed by rhino and antelope, while mole rats eat the rhizomes and weaver birds strip leaf fibres off for building their nests. There must be very little chance of spotting a nibble on such leaves in the Red Square (Pooley, 1998).