If you are a casual grower of species African violets, the name that came with your plant could be anything from Burtt’s system to Nishii et al’s system.  Your plant may have a clone designation or it may not.  The most important thing is to keep some kind of name with each species plant.  If you really need to identify the plant by the “proper” scientific name, it should usually be possible to follow the thread of name changes to arrive at the most current scientific name following Nishii et al. 2015.  If you show plants, the classification program used by the African Violet Society of America (AVSA) should produce an acceptable species name for show purposes.  Only those who are doing research and need to publish using the most current scientific name will likely need to pay close attention to the taxonomic changes.

In terms of the use of the genus names Saintpaulia and Streptocarpus, there remains some uncertainty. International botanical authorities have largely accepted the proposals of Nishii et al. that Saintpaulia is nested within Streptocarpus, and that the species should be referred to as the latter.  Both the Gesneriad Society and the African Violet Society of America (international registration authority for Saintpaulia) have accepted the change, and will be transitioning to the use of Streptocarpus as the genus name for what had been Saintpaulia.

It’s important to recognize that Saintpaulia remains a legitimate botanical name, as a Section within Streptocarpus subgenus Streptocarpella and references to Saintpaulia remain valid as long as this is understood.

As noted elsewhere, we are using the naming structure proposed by Nishii et al for species discussed or illustrated on the site, but for clarity and to avoid name conflicts with Streptocarpus hybrids are continuing to use Saintpaulia, unitalicized, when referencing modern hybrid cultivars.