A popular house plant, Streptocarpus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae (Gesneriads). The flowers are five-petalled, salverform tubes, almost orchid-like in appearance, and hover or arch over the plant. The genus is native to parts of Africa and Madagascar. In the wild, species can be found growing on shaded rocky hillsides or cliffs, on the ground, in rock crevices, and almost anywhere the seed can germinate and grow. For the home, there are now many hybrids of various colours and forms available.
The genus is defined by having a spirally twisted fruit (from Greek via Latin, where strepto = twisted, carpus = fruit - Greek: Στρεπτόκαρπος), although this character is also found in some other Old World genera of Gesneriaceae. Although generally referred to simply as Streptocarpus, or "Streps", one common name is Cape Primrose, referring to the nativity of several species to South Africa and their superficial resemblance to the genus Primula.
There are a few odd species of Streptocarpus in Asia that do not belong in the genus. Molecular systematics has shown conclusively that the Asian species are not true Streptocarpus and should be removed from the Genus.
DNA studies have shown that that, although it does not have a twisted fruit, the genus Saintpaulia (African Violets) evolved from within the Streptocarpus subgenus Streptocarpella.
Read more about Streptocarpus: Cultivation, Body Forms, Propagation, Flower Anatomy, Hybridisation, Genes and Inheritance, Species, History, Societies and The International Registry, Showing and Displays, Images