How To Count Leaf Rows (Whorls Of Leaves) On African Violet Plants?

• African Violet plants have leaves which grow outwards from the center stalk in a layered radial/circular pattern.
• African Violets grow as a single crown (thick stem) plant, in a rosette shape.
• The African Violet plant has a main stem/stalk and internodes which are short in size.
• To learn more about rosette and trailing violets can read, “What are the Different Types of African Violet Plants?“.

• The leaves of the African Violet plant grow flat and closer to the soil surface.
• The leaves will start growing from the crown and then form layers of leaves around the crown in a circular pattern.
• These leaves, grow in sets of 3 to form the rosette /circular pattern.
• A single rosette African Violet plant can have as man as five symmetrical whorls of leaves tightly clustered at the base of the plant.
• The blooms grow within the center of the African Violet plant.

Crown and Leaf Rows Of The African Violet Plant:

• African Violet plants, can have 1-6 rows of symmetrical whorls of leaves.
• The center set of leaves are known as the crown.
• Below are pictures identifying the crown of the African Violet plant.

• Below are pictures identifying the first row of leaves on African Violet plants.
• The first row is the set of the first 3 leaves right outside of the crown.

• Below are pictures identifying the second row of leaves on African Violet plants.
• As the African Violet plant grows and matures, it starts to grow more rows of leaves from the crown.
• Once the first row of leaves matures, they are pushed outwards and they now become the 2nd row of leaves.
• As the crown leaves matures, they are pushed outwards and become the 1st row of leaves.
• A new crown then starts to grow.

• Below are pictures identifying the third row of leaves on African Violet plants.
• As the African Violet plant continues to grow, it pushes out more and more sets of 3 leaves outwards.
• This increases the diameter of the plant and the leaf span of the plant.

• Below are pictures identifying the fourth row of leaves on African Violet plants.
• Here we can see that the plant is busy at work putting out new sets of leaves.
• The crown has generated 4 rows of leaves.

• Below are pictures identifying the fifth row of leaves on African Violet plants.
• As the African Violet plant grows, the 5th row of leaves which were once started from the crown, have now been pushed outwards and there are 4 new rows of leaves in the center.
• These 5th row of leaves are considered as the older leaves on the plant.

• Below are pictures identifying the sixth row of leaves on African Violet plants.
• An African Violet can maintain maximum 3-5 rows of leaves, depending upon whether they are miniature, semi-miniature or standard in size.
• Can learn more about African Violet plant sizes here, “What are the Different Sizes of African Violet Plants?“.

• The 6th row of leaves are much older and will soon need to be removed, to maintain a rosette swirl pattern.
• Over time, the 5th or 6th row of leaves, will become shriveled, limp or loose color.
• This is when you know its time to remove these older leaves and allow the crown to put out a new set of healthy leaves.

Examples of self watering pots for African Violet plants as shown below:

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