The African Violet Society of America is an international society of plant enthusiasts who promote the cultivation of African violets

Saintpaulia

Saintpaulia, commonly known as African violet, is a genus of six species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Gesneriaceae, native to Tanzania and adjacent southeastern Kenya in eastern tropical Africa, with a concentration of species in the Nguru mountains of Tanzania...

 (Saintpaulia species and cultivars) as house plants. The Society hosts an annual convention and publishes a bi-monthly full-color 64-page magazine, the African Violet Magazine.

History

The African Violet Society of America Inc. (AVSA) was organized on November 8, 1946, and incorporated on June 30, 1947. Since then it has grown to be the largest society devoted to a single indoor plant in the world. It is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Objectives

The purposes of AVSA are:

• to provide a convenient association for people interested in African violets;
• to stimulate interest in propagation and culture of African violets;
• to promote distribution of all varieties and species among members and others interested in growing them;
• to publish reliable, practical information about plants and the organization.

Membership

AVSA membership, which includes both amateur and commercial growers, spans the globe. There are national groups in many countries of the world. The purposes of AVSA are carried out, in part, by a strong network of affiliate clubs, state and regional societies, councils of societies, and judges councils. The AVSA sponsors African violet shows staged at the AVSA conventions and by AVSA affiliates. In these shows, plants are merit-judged according to the appropriate AVSA scales of points by AVSA judges.

AVSA is the International Cultivar Registration Authority

International Cultivar Registration Authority

An International Cultivation Registration Authority is an organization responsible for ensuring that each plant cultivar receives a unique, authoritative botanical name....

 for the genus Saintpaulia and its cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

s. This registry is available to the public with the purchase of updatable software.