The Sansevieria trifasciata leaf cutting is from a horticulturally pretty ordinary plant, but from an historical perspective it's very interesting. The plant appeared in Grant Wood's painting "Woman with Plants". I believe these images of these paintings are publicly available and can be posted:

People in the Iowa arts community have been passing down the plant since Hattie Woods died. I got mine from a guy at U. Iowa, along with the lineage (up to him) of who owned the plant over the years. He's also published this in a book.

It turns out that Grant Wood has a very similar Sansevieria in another painting. I spoke with Wood's biographer, and he doesn't know for sure whether it's the exact same plant. So perhaps it will never be known. This is pictured in an even better known painting, but one has to look carefully.

Above the shoulder of Grant Wood's sister Nan:

The painting is "American Gothic":

So to make sure that's clear. The plant I'm propagating is:

For sure from Grant Wood's 'Woman with Plants'

Maybe from Grant Wood's 'American Gothic'.

It would depend on whether Hattie Wood had two or more clones of S. trifasciata, two plants of which coincidentally were the same size and looked very similar at about the same time. If not, it's the same plant in both paintings. Or if she divided a plant, it could still be the same clone. Note that the pots appear slightly different in the two paintings.

Another attempt --if I try to edit the first post, all formatting is lost, and it takes forever to add it back. So I'll do it here. The title should read: "Attempted Propagation of Sansevieria trifasciata between wet paper towels in ziploc bags"

Keep us updated! If this works I bet it would increase the odds of getting variegated plantlets if they grow from the interface between normal and variegated tissue.

Thanks, woodnative. I hadn't thought of that.

On January 4th, 15 days into this, I noticed a patch of mold in one of the ziploc bags. So I removed those leaf fragments.

They looked fine. I decided to pot them up in moist soil--they were coming from a soggy environment. I just crammed them into loose soil in a 3 ounce plastic cup:

The big problem was I couldn't tell up from down, so I tried to insert pieces on their sides.

Today (Jan. 29h, I think 40 days since this started), I took these guys out to check for roots. The biggest, a more conventional cutting, has one. This actually strikes me as fairly decent root growth on that bigger piece. And clearly at that one cutting seems to be fine with its soggy experience in a plastic bag. So that's OK for Sansevieria trifasciata.

(I missed a couple pieces, probably left them in the plastic pot. )

I decided to push these guys in terms of their size. I suspect that if all cuttings were as big as the largest one here (still very small compared to what people usually use) I would have more with roots. Hopefully the little guys will make it; we'll see.

Heres the cutting. It's about the size of a U.S. quarter (2.43 cm).

In a case like this, the time spent early on in the ziploc could allow it to callus, in theory without pathogens around.

About possible pathogens: I think that same goal might be achieved by more conventional method, i.e. cutting leaf into pieces and leaving them for a few days lying without water or earth, just so that cut ends dry out. This is usual with succulents and this method worked for me with a sansevieria as well. I am also a big fan of rooting sansevieria cuttings in wet sand - worked particularly well with S.powysii. And once I managed to root a whole leaf in water, but that was S.trifasciata species. I feel strongly that what all need most of all is an effective way of rooting variegated sansevierias :)

Mark what temperature did you keep the cuttings at?

Sans2014. My condo has been at a constant 66 F (19 C) over the whole period. I don't think it's really gotten warmer than that outside.

Basia K. Thanks for your input. Are you suggesting callus growth when kept dry, then putting the cuttings in a ziploc bag, but avoiding the sterilization and washing steps? I did mention that one benefit I assume of being "sterile" (semi-sterile, if that makes sense, is probably more accurate) is callus growth. However, the initial reason to sterilize was to keep the whole setup from being a nasty fungal mess. I expect that would still happen in that case. The whole thing would become a vastly different experiment as well. I'm really curious how general this technique that worked for Begonias, Gesneriads, etc. is.

If one sterilized after callus formation, I strongly suspect the callus would be damaged by the bleach. Damage to cuttings has been perhaps the major problem with this.

The other question is why worry about it. If callus formation proceeds in the ziploc bag, and the cuttings don't rot, what's the concern? So far, out of the ~60 tiny cuttings, I've lost one, perhaps the smallest one, which might suggest bleach. Below you can see that cutting on the lower right. Note how tiny all of these cuttings are. Quarter for scale. Another question: Would cuttings that small evan survive the dry callusing? I suppose one could up the humidity?

But the question of whether callus formation proceeds normally is probably answered by the largest cutting, which rooted quickly after being removed from the bag. If that's the case, then neither survival nor callus formation is defective when small cuttings (hopefully very small as well) are incubated in a very wet, "sterile" environment.

One question I have right now is whether incubation in the dark is required for the region of the cutting that puts out roots. So far, these get light 24/7. I have a number of different bags; I could always put one in the dark for a few days.

I don't really have a huge interest in Sansevieria propagation. I was just curious if the technique worked for these plants. I also thought it might be fun to crank out a lot of this clone. I don't really have many other Sansevierias. In terms of variegated ones I have 'Bantel's Sensation' if this works and anyone thinks that's worth trying.

At this point, I would say that this has worked, sort of.... I have a cutting with roots. The questions are how small can the cuttings be, and whether they can grow roots and plantlets while still in the bag. Whether or not that's the case, this could still be useful to get cuttings started, but maybe not the easiest way.

Mark, an interesting experiment thanks for sharing, I really thought this would not work with Sanseveria. You could probably increase your success rate with warmer temperatures as Sans love hot weather.

Yeah, I do have a heating pad, that's about it. It's probably too warm.

They do grow outside in this climate, at least S. trifasciata. The original plant I got of this is now outside. We are cold and rainy in the winter--about 60/40-45 F. Tuesday is supposed to be 49/38 (!) which is unusually cold. Maybe the cold airmass that hit the midwest has made its way around the globe (that seems fast).

Quite frankly, I do not see any need for ziploc bags at all - sansevierias (at least those more popular species) root quite nicely in pots filled with some light medium like perlite or sand. Similar thing with sterilization: cut the leaf with a clean knife and the wound does not require any additional measures, just let it dry out a bit. If you cut out fresh air, as in the case with bagging cuttings, then some fungal agent perhaps might be necessary. What I should like to stress again, however, is that I see no need at all for such complex procedures.

My goal here is to find out what range of plants this technique will work for. Whether or not it is the most efficient or easiest technique for a given plant is not my concern. I stressed this point three posts up.

For example, I showed a while ago that it worked for Tacitus bellus (Graptopetalum bellum). I know it's not the easiest way to propagate that plant, but someone was curious whether it works on succulents. It does, at least that one. It is useful to know that it can work for succulents? I believe it is.

However, I have no idea in advance how successful this will be. In many cases with "easy" plants it has been far more productive than existing techniques (examples: Streptocarpus and rex Begonias--I get hundreds from a leaf).

To dismiss it in advance would be a bit odd.

I wouldn't call this complex, but pretty simple. It can get slightly tedious at the bleaching/washing stage.

Basia, can you give a link to where someone propagated a Sansevieria from leaf cuttings of the size I'm using? It would be interesting to see how it worked out.

Not simple, too many steps, I just wouldn't go thru w/ all the steps. Like Basia, I find the bagging unnecessary.

I've never seen anyone try it w/ such a tiny bit of leaf, I doubted it would work for concern abt rot in the bagged environment.

I don't get the point of using such tiny pieces. My guts tell me bigger pieces would root faster.

I just found this in one of the bags. I think I noticed it first because it pokes out from the paper towels. I suspect there are more, but I haven't looked carefully. The photo is unconvincing, partly because there a number of layers to look through, but also because my photographic skills are limited. I'll retake it in a few days.

I'm convinced it's a root, looking at it under magnification. In the upper right corner, indicated by an arrow.

1) It's on a region that was a sharp cut of a razor blade.

2) I've looked at a gazillion tiny roots under magnification. This one is covered with densely packed and (surprisingly tiny) root hairs. It seems awfully clear.

So the little pieces do root, or at least one has. If my count is right, this is after 7 weeks,and again at 66 F.

I'll again emphasize the size difference. I believe most protocols would suggest cutting the starting leaf into perhaps 2-3 pieces (someone correct me if I'm wrong). This was cut into about 60 pieces.

Thanks snek lover. I think anyone who has done experimental science is aware of the tendency to outthink doing an experiment. There are always reasons why it "can't" work and it's tempting to predict the outcome in advance. So first year graduate students (everyone actually) has to be constantly reminded to "just do the experiment!"

When it comes to technique development, to insist that a new technique must be already better than existing techniques before it has ever been attempted and refined would mean that nothing new would ever be developed..

When I tried this on Streptocarpus, in a way it just seemed like doing something that had already been solved. Going through the motions, nothing more. But I was shocked when I ended up with 300+ plants (I eventually stopped trying) from a single 3.7 x 2.4 inch leaf. It's tempting to decide the outcome in advance. I did this with Streptocarpus, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I'll stress again that my goal is not to perfect Sansevieria propagation, and certainly not in advance of ever trying or optimizing a new technique. My main concern is given this new technique, what will it succeed with? Which Begonias, Which Gesneriads, which bulbs, which succulents, and so on. There's no reason Sansevieria should be excluded.

It's certainly possible the technique could be streamlined as well. I first started doing it a year and a half ago and really haven't focused on that. One suggestion that was made--which I haven't tried--is directly neutralizing the bleach solution in the ziploc bag. That would eliminate all or most of the washing steps, and the tedium. I would personally consider it to be very quick and easy if the washing steps could be eliminated.

For most people, who just want to give away one or two new plants, your technique is not very practical. Still, it is definitely interesting from educational viewpoint - something in between conventional and in vitro propagation?

Basia, that's exactly it. I had intended this as a simple and cheap (pennies per try) technique intermediate between conventional propagation and tissue culture which requires no special equipment or expertise.. Say someone gets a new plant and can only spare one leaf, yet wants to quickly generate 100 plants. A nursery owner might be one example. Another example: a woman who has discovered new Begonia species contacted me because she often gets damaged plants in the mail and would like to salvage them from a small piece.

To be able to quickly propagate a large number of plants can be very useful. For example, the Streptocarpus I mentioned was a striking but hard to find plant,. It was from the UK and I assume snuck into this country (a friend's photo):

Streptocarpus 'Blue Frills'

This Begonia species is one of many which can be (for me) tricky and a bit slow to propagate. It's easy, doing this:

Begonia brevirimosa

But yeah, if one only wants one or two plants, and conventional propagation works fine, then why bother. This is most useful for hard to find, new or unique plants, when one is not set up to do tissue culture.

I have used the sphag and bag method to propagate bulbs without a mold issue. Would this work for sansevieria? I'm willing to try unless you're aware of a downside.

As I say, I don't really know much about Sansevieria propagation, I'm really just interested in testing this one technique, which has sterilization as a central step. I don't know how sensitive Sansevierias would be to rot in such an environment. I assume it might depend on species? Probably others here know. Fibrous sphagnum is often claimed to have antifungal properties. You could always try it and see if you can spare the material.

This shows a root on one of the smaller pieces more clearly, as well as one that is closer to "conventional" size. These are both from the bag that I opened prematurely due to a fungal colony. For the non Americans, that's a quarter for scale, just under 1 inch in diameter (2.4 cm).

Just an update on cuttings from the above bag. 5 have now rooted, 3 have not. I gave the rooted ones individual "pots" (3 oz. plastic cups). Not that I need more pots sitting around.

Hey, I think the history of your plant is fascinating!