Hi, Christy,

Hmmm, this is a new one for me. As far as telling the difference, the urge to give you a smartalecky answer is almost overwhelming, you know, lifting up their leaves and taking a peek....dang, there I went. Sorry.

Are you referring to general plants or african violets specifically? If to violets, I assume you are talking about 'girl' foliage, which is used to describe a certain shape of leaf, not gender of the plant. Girl foliage is deeply scalloped and has white to yellow marking at the base of the leaf and sometimes on the whole leaf.

I hope this helps.

Barbara

If you were going to say plants have gender, you'd have to say African violets were hermaphrodites. They have both sexes at once.

Actually this refers to the reproductive parts of a flower. In each flower you see a stamen, the little stick-like thing standing from the middle of the flower. Often the tops of the stamen has a clear glistening sticky thing on it. This is the feminine part of the flower. The stamen receives the pollon, the masculine part of the flower.

The pollon comes from the yellow pollen sacks located in the middle of the flower. You actually have to cut off the pollon sacks in order to get at the precious pollon, a yellow powdery substance which will stick to the sticky part of the stamen, the female part.

When the pollon sticks to the stamen, the stamen allows it to go down into the ovary where seeds are formed. In about nine months the ovary has enlarged and is carrying seeds. When the seeds ripen, they can be taken off and sowed to produce other plants.

Girl leaves have a small whitish spot near where the leaf and stem connect. These are sometimes difficult to grow although there are some hybrids with girl leaves that grow naturally flat.

Nancy

HA!! Barbara you crack me up :) But, you nailed it on the head (no pun intended :). I did mean the 'girl' foliage. I just don't understand what it means. Can one plant have female and male leaves? Hmm. Just curious, really. And thanks Nancy. I knew about the male/female parts of the plant, but of course, didn't even think about it when I posted the question :) Christy

Hi, Christy,

If you go to the African Violet Society of America website, on the left is a 'menu'. Click on FAQ, and then a new list will come up just to the right of the first column. Select blossoms and leaves, and you will get an illustration of different types of blossoms and leaves. It is hand drawn and I wish I could think of a named violet with girl leaves. Oh wait, "Zanzibar' is one I just acquired. I don't know if there is a photo on the avsa website, but spend some time looking at the photograph section. Keep a tissue handy to wipe up the drool....

Barbara

Here is a link that might be useful: african violet society

Let's see if I can remember this correctly.

Way back when, in 1952, there came two new African violets, named Sailor Boy and Sailor Girl. Sailor Girl had a new kind of foliage, that was lobed, and had a light area where the leaf blade met the leaf stem. Since then, all plants with a light spot at the base of the leaf, lobed or not, are called 'girl leaves' for Sailor Girl. Technically all the others are 'boy leaves', but no one bothers.

Hope that helps.

Korina, feeling very scholarly

If you go down a few postings to 'need more info on 3 av's' there is a picture of girl foliage.

Barbara

ladies -

could it be that what Christy saw in a literature was a plant genus.

Like african violets belong to the genus Saintpaulia. It includes so many species - like Saintpaulia ionantha - the mother of all our standards, and unnumerable amount of hybrids.

(or we, violet lovers, are part of the genus Homo, species Homo sapiens sapiens)

Cheers
irina

I have 2 Africa Violets planted in different pots, one is a single plant, but the other started out as one plant but now it has many plants in the one pot, could the many plants be female? All the many plants have their own beautiful flowers. Just curious.

Sorry - the fact that your AV has bunch of off-shoots - doesn't make it female. Female and male plant - it is about sexual organs - some species have male and female flowers on different plants - for example poplar tree or marijuana. AVs have both female and male organs in their flowers - pistils - and anthers with pollen.

So - if you call one plant Ken, and the second - Barbie - you can do it - but it is not about their sex. .