Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata)

Lidah mertua or Mother-in-law's tongue or snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata) is a plant species in Asparagaceace, easily known from thick leaves, grows around pseudo stems above ground level and contains a lot of water, resists drought due to evaporation water and transpiration rate can be suppressed.

S. trifasciata has long, thick and stiff leaves, tapered at the upper end, bones are parallel, each rosette has 2-6 strands with crossed position, 15-150 cm long, 4-9 cm wide, slippery and green with texture silver or yellow patches.

Fiber roots grow from the base of the stem, white and fat. Rhizoma as a storage place for photosynthesis and propagation. Rhizoma spreads underground and sometimes above the ground. The tip is a meristem network that always grows elongated.

Flowers grow upright from the base of the stem, house two, pistils and pollen are not in the bud and emit a fragrance especially at night. Female flowers have pistils, while male flowers have pollen.

The fruit is produced from fertilizing pollen on the pistil's head. Seeds have an important role in breeding and single-beeping like other monocotyledonous plants. The outer part is a thick skin as a protective layer, on the inside of the skin is a plant embryo.

Snake plant is popular for indoor and outdoor ornamental plants, treating diabetes and hemorrhoids, inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, anti-poison snakes and insects, textile raw materials and has the ability to clean 107 types of pollutants in the air.

Sansevieria sp. able to absorb pollutants because it has the active ingredient pregnane glycoside which functions to reduce pollutants to organic acids, sugars and amino acids so that the pollutant elements are no longer harmful to humans. One leaf absorbs 0.938 mg formaldehyde in one hour.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Nolinoideae
Genus: Sansevieria
Species: Sansevieria trifasciata

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