Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

284 DRACAENACEAE
Key to the species
1. Plants without easily seen aerial stems; leaves flat or if cylindrical,
without a channel at the base 2
- Plants with a short areal stem; leaves laterally compressed or
cylindrical with a channel at the base 5
2. Leaves cylindrical 3
- Leaves flat or nearly flat 4
3. Leaves solitary 3. S. fischeri
- Leaves several together 4. S. erythraeae
4. Leaves with acute, brown, apical points and red-brown margins
6. S. forskaoliana
- Leaves with soft green subulate points and green margins 5. S. nilotica
5. Stem up to 10 cm high, branching at or near the ground, leaves channelled
for about 2 cm at the base, otherwise cylindrical 2. S. phillipsiae
- Stem up to 23 cm high, not branching, leaves laterally compressed,
with a channel throughout their length 1. S. ehrenbergii
Sansevieria
shrenbergii
Description
1. Sansevieria ehrenbergii Schweinf. ex Baker
The specific epithet ‘ehrenbergii’ refers to the German
botanist Ehrenberg.
The name was proposed by Schwein furth, and the
species was formally described by Baker in 1875 from a
plant collected in the Sudan.
It differs from the related species, S. phillipsiae, by
the leaves being laterally compressed and channeled
throughout their length. In contrast, S. phillipsiae has
leaves cylindrical and channeled only for about 2 cm
from base.
Xerophytic plants with stems up to 25cm tall, usually concealed by
leaf bases. Leaves 5–9, crowded, 2­ranked, erect or more or less
spreading fan­wise, up to 1m or more long, laterally compressed,
with flattened sides, rounded on the back, tapering upwards, rather
abruptly ending in a stout hard spine­like point about 2 cm long;
margins reddish­brown, with white membranaceous edges which get
wider than the rest of the leaf at the base. Inflorescence a panicle up
to 2 m long, much branched in the upper ¾ of its length; branches up
to 25 cm or more long, curved, ascending, the lower ones branched
again, the upper ones simple. Flowers 4–7 in a cluster, pedicels 2–4