Will tolerate low light levels but grows best and flowers if given bright light and even tolerates full sun. Hardy to 30-32° F. Water sparingly and not at all as temperatures dip in winter, particularly if growing outdoors - can tolerate going months between watering and if grown outdoors in California does need to be kept under an eave or some other protection from winter rainfall and cold. A great large container plant for interior or exterior use that needs little care.

This plant was first widely distributed by Hermine Stover of Endangered Species nursery in Tustin, California and she was the first to apply this name in one of their wonderful and very entertaining catalogs and included it in her self-published The Sansevieria Book in 1983, noting it was her "favorite plant in the world" and that "somebody made these smooth leaves almost black without markings. Then they were dipped in a thick coating of ballpark-mustard-colored-wax. Finally the master engraver, using ruling instruments removed thin strips of wax, revealing thin green lines." Hermine received the plant from southern California Sansevieria grower Lilian True, who apparently never recalled where she got if from or if it was possibly a mutation of a plant in her own collection. It is likely a sport of Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii', which has similar yellow margins but with banded lighter markings throughout the central green area. It has also been called 'Slipped Stripes'. We have had both 'Laurentii' and 'Lilian True' in our collection from Alice Waidhofer but eventually noted that plants we were selling as 'Laurentii' were actually 'Lilian True'.

The type plant of this species was collected in Nigeria and it was also found in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) but it has naturalized elsewhere and there are many selected forms in cultivation. The name for the genus was originally Sanseverinia as named by the Italian botanist Vincenzo Petagna in honor of his patron, Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, the Count of Chiaromonte (1724-1771), but the name was altered for unknown reasons by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg, possibly influenced by the name of Raimondo di Sangro (1710–1771), prince of San Severo in Italy. The specific epithet combines the Latin words 'tri" meaning three with 'fasciatus' meaning "banded" in reference to the many leaf markings. Long placed in the Agavaceae, the Dracaenaceae and by some in the Ruscaceae families, Sansevieria was most recently placed in the subfamily Nolinoideae within the Asparagaceae family.

Molecular phylogenetic studies have persuaded some to include Sansevieria in the genus Dracaena, which would make this plants name Dracaena trifasciata. Because of considerable disagreement over this change, the long standing use of its old name, and so not to cause our own and customer confusion, we continue to list this plant as a Sansevieria. Our original stock plant came from the collection of Sansevieria collector Alice Waidhofer. 

The information about Sansevieria trifasciata 'Lilian True' displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.