Saintpaulia is a section within Streptocarpus subgenus Streptocarpella[1] consisting of about ten species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae, native to Tanzania and adjacent southeastern Kenya in eastern tropical Africa.

Several of the species and subspecies of the section are endangered, and many more are threatened, as their native cloud forest habitats are cleared for agriculture.

The flowers are 2-3 cm in diameter, with a five-lobed velvety corolla ("petals"), and grow in clusters of 3-10 or more on slender stalks called peduncles.

This group of plants has lived in the biodiverse Eastern Arc Usambara Mountains in Tanga Province for millions of years.

The Germans officially colonialized this area from about 1885, and shortly before this, Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire (1860–1940) was made district commissioner of Tanga province, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in Africa.

In 1892 he sent seeds back to his father, who gave them to an amateur botanist, Hermann Wendland, in Germany.

Until recently, only a few of the ten or so species that exist have been used in breeding programs for the hybrids available in the market; most of the cultivars available as house plants are derived from Streptocarpus ionanthus (syn.

[13] Growing African violets from seed is rare, and most commercially available plants are produced from cuttings and tissue culture.

[14] They are a popular house plant in many countries, as they can flower during most of the year and are fairly durable to neglect.

[17][18] In the 1997 film Amistad, ex-president John Quincy Adams shows the lead slave Joseph Cinqué his flower collection which contains an African violet which Cinque then recognises from his home land.