African Violets are not actually related to any violet species; they simply resemble violets in shape and color. Their actual name is Saintpaulia ionantha, honoring Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illiare, a German district commissioner who discovered them on a visit to Eastern Tanzania in 1892. He sent specimens of the strikingly beautiful plants to his father, an amateur botanist. Eventually African Violets were delivered to the German Royal Botanical Garden, where they were given their eponymous Latin name.
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