saintpaulia

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun An East African genus of plants of the family Gesneriaceæ, comprising 3 species. One of them, S. ionantha, a recent acquisition to greenhouses, is a small herbaceous plant bearing a profusion of sky-blue flowers somewhat resembling a violet, whence the name ‘African violet.’ The leaves are all radical, ovate, or ovate-oblong; the flowers are nodding, one inch across, in few-flowered clusters, with a subrotate two-lipped corolla.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun botany Any of the perennial flowering plants of the genus Saintpaulia, the African violets, especially Saintpaulia ionantha.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun east African herb with nodding flowers; widely cultivated