The Variegated Thumb

Plants are very crafty when it comes to getting things done that they can’t do on their own.  Without the mobility of many other living things on Earth, a single plant can manage to breed with plants miles away and then transport itself to a new location, via a seed which was carried by a bird or wafted away on a breeze.  But like I said, plants have to be pretty crafty to get all of this done.

In order to carry out the breeding, plants must intermingle their pollen.  Since they can’t transport the pollen on their own, they have to attract some more mobile friends – like bees, flies, birds, moths and butterflies.  Many people are aware that brightly colored flowers are used for attracting some of these pollinators.  But some things that fly are not attracted so much to bright colors.  In fact, some flying things are attracted to some pretty disgusting things – like dung or dead bodies.  Don’t think the plant kingdom has overlooked these flying things.  There is a nitch of plants which attract flies which feed on carrion by disguising their flowers with the perfume of a decaying body.  Lovely, huh?

In fact, there are several different families of plants that take advantage of these carrion-feeding pollinators.  One group is the Amorphophallus genus from the Aroid family.  Another is the Stapeliae tribe from the Apocynaceae family.  These plants have a pretty good following of people who collect from the genera Stapelia, Huernia, Caralluma, Tridentea and others.  Stapelia is kind of the shining star of the tribe, but I find Huernia to have some really neat species.

I bought my first Stapelia (S. gigantea) back in April and it has been growing very rapidly this summer.

I bought 5 more plants over the last week from a couple of vendors on ebay.  Here they are!

Huernia aspera

Huernia aspera is the largest plant I purchased.  The others are pretty tiny starts.  This plant has nice, deep red blooms that are shaped like stars, just like all plants in this tribe.  These blooms are often pendulous, facing down and looking like a bell in profile.

Huernia penzigii

This is the most attractive plant while not blooming, with it’s silvery stems.  I’m not sure about the blooms of this plant, as I’ve seen conflicting pictures online.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!

Huernia longituba

Huernia longituba has elongated blooms, as referenced in the species name.  The blooms have a base color of yellow with speckling of red on the inside.

Stapelia divaricata

Stapelia divaricata has very weird blooms that look like rubbery pale pink or yellow starfish.

Stapelia flavopurpurea - with a flower bud.

Stapelia flavopurpurea has really cool, petite blooms that almost have a touch of Passionflower-flare to them.  The plant I purchases has a bud on it.  I’m hoping it will open, but I wouldn’t be totally surprised if it doesn’t since it just went through a couple of days in a shipping box.

These plants are succulents primarily found in southern and eastern Africa, including some from Ethiopia!  They like to be pretty dry and they don’t at all mind the heat we’ve been having lately.  With a little luck and a couple of seasons, I hope to be able to bring all of these to bloom.

Our peach tree was planted in April 2007, as a congratulatory gift when I got my real job after graduation.  It was about 3 feet tall then.  Three years later, it’s pushing 15 feet and covered in blooms every spring.  This year we noticed something a little different after the blooms had all been blown away.

Very young peaches on the tree

Our tree is covered in fruit.  Up until this point I had been referring to our tree as a “Flowering Peach” because I thought it was a flowering only variety.  The fruits were growing quickly in the early Summer, but did not get big enough to eat this year.  Now they’re beginning to litter the ground and get squished on our driveway.

Little more mature peach. They didn't get much larger than this - maybe 2" in diameter.

I’m hoping that next year we might actually have some fruits mature enough to eat.  The hot and dry latter half of the Summer might have contributed to the small fruits, but I don’t know very much about that.

Does anyone know if Peach trees (or any other fruiting trees) take some time before producing mature fruits?

It’s been a while since I have posted updates on some of my plants that I’ve had for a year or two.  So here are some of my Aroids, which are doing quite well:

Aglaonema 'Gold Dust'

Though Aglaonema ‘Gold Dust’ has not grown a lot, it has recently put out a new offset, which I would prefer over height anyway, since I just have one stalk of it.

Aglaonema 'Royal Ripple'

My Aglaonema ‘Royal Ripple’ has been putting out many offsets and is now filling the pot rather nicely.  Some of my other Aglaonemas are also doing really well: A. ‘Peacock’, A. ‘BJ Freeman’, A. ‘Abidjan’, and A. ‘Silver Bay’

Anthurium barbacoasense

The Anthurium barbacoasense which I brought back from the April meeting of the MidAmerica IAS chapter is growing really well.  I need to figure out a good system for supporting it.  I probably just need to set up a totem for it.  For now, it has been growing leaning against a taller pot for support.  This plant was collected by Dr. Tom Croat in Colombia.

Epipremnum pinnatum v. 'Cebu Blue'

My Epipremnum pinnatum v. ‘Cebu Blue’ is one of my favorites!  It has been growing very steadily and has latched on to the wood totem I made for it.  Recently this plant was knocked over in a wind storm, which caused me to lose a leaf or two and some of the plant lost its grip on the wood, but the plant was mostly undamaged.  I’m so glad this one is doing well.  You can see from one of the neighboring plants that I am a sucker for this foliage color.  I just love the blue-silver shade.

Monstera obliqua

I’ve had luck off and on with my Monstera obliqua, but this set of cuttings really took off recently and I gave it a totem to climb, which is going pretty well.  It has produced some very large leaves down at the base of the plant, which I didn’t expect.

Philodendron '69686'

My Philodendron ‘69686′ is growing very well.  It has been putting out leaves profusely, one right on top of the other.  According to Steve Lucas, this plant is likely a naturally-occurring hybrid from Brazil.  I’m glad it got out before they clamped down on exports of all plant life!

unknown Philodendron hybrid

My unknown hybrid Philodendron from cuttings at my office has been growing really well and attached to the totem.  It’s already taller than the totem I made, so I’ll need to come up with something taller or start cutting it back.  It would be neat if I could make a really tall totem for this one and just let it keep growing taller.

Philodendron florida?

This Philodendron was searching for something to climb, so I recently fixed up a totem for this one and have it temporarily attached with string.  I really like the texture of the stems of this plant.  This plant was a gift from Russ Hammer, who told me that it is called Philodendron florida, but I haven’t been able to find much information on that name.

Philodendron mayoi - with two happy pups in the background

My crowing glory right now is my Philodendron mayoi.  About 6 months ago I found a really nice piece of wood that was contorted and scarred and it was scheduled for destruction, along with a bunch of other tree limbs.  So I held onto it and waited for the perfect use.  One day I realized it would make a really nice climbing apparatus for one of my Aroids.  And I had just the perfect plant!  The P. mayoi latched on very quickly and has roots wrapping all around this unique branch.  It’s a work of art, in my opinion!  I really don’t think the pictures do it justice.

Philodedron mayoi

Philodendron 'Rojo'

My Philodendron ‘Rojo’ hybrid is one of the few Meconostigma (upright, self-supported, non-climbing) Philodendrons in my collection.  This plant has been growing slow and steady since I got it sometime last year.

Philodendron bipinnatifidum?

The other Meconostigma Philodendron in my collection has not been identified.  For a while I was calling it Philodendron selloum, but I’m not sure that is correct.  It might be Philodendron bipinnatifidum.  My plant has stayed about the same size since I got it in a trade about 3 years ago.  It puts out new leaves and loses old ones, but stays about the same size.

Philodendron tortum

My Philodendron tortum is one of my newer plants.  It has been growing really well.  I will have to set up a totem for it soon.  I guess that will make it a “tortum totem.”

Syngonium wendlandii

Syngonium wendlandii is probably the most attractive Syngonium that I have ever seen.  This plant, like my other Syngoniums, really likes water.

Last year I bought an Oleander for really cheap at the end of the summer season.  It had finished blooming for the year, so I didn’t know what color it would be, but it was covered in long brown seed pods, which was a nice bonus.

The seed pods stayed on the plant for several months and then finally burst open in the middle of the winter, while the plant was in my greenhouse.  Since there wasn’t much air circulation in the greenhouse I was able to gather all the seeds and keep them from planting themselves in every pot.  That was a good thing, since there were thousands of seeds.  Based on my past experience with seeds, I assumed I probably wouldn’t have much luck growing Oleanders from seed – especially after I read some information on the internet.

Oleander seeds

I gave some of the seeds to my sister to give to her friend who has a greenhouse and grows plants from seed.  After my sister told me that her friend had sprouted seedlings, I decided to try my hand.  Just about a week after planting my seeds I started to see some results.  Turns out the complicated directions on the internet weren’t necessary.  I just stuck the seeds in a pot and slightly covered them with soil and watered.

My Oleander seedlings

I’ve kept my seedlings alive and healthy, but they haven’t been growing very fast.  My sister brought me some of the seedlings her friend grew and they are quite a bit more mature than mine.

My Oleander seedlings alongside the mature seedlings

In the mean time, this summer my parent plant bloomed again (the first time for me), in spite of the mealies that have been plaguing it.  Now I know that my plant has pink blooms.

Oleander bloom

Oleanders will always remind me of Rome, where there were some beautiful large bushes growing right in front of the Colosseum.

Oleanders blooming in front of the Colosseum in Rome on our 2007 trip to Italy. It really just doesn't get any better than this.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the not-so-docile plants of the Volunteer Park Conservatory.  Many people are familiar with the Venus fly trap, but there are several other types of carnivorous plants – and the conservatory had several.  I know there were representatives from the popular Sarracenia, Dionaea (Venus fly trap), and Nepenthes genera, and some others that I didn’t know.

Nepenthes sp. in hanging basket

These plants are commonly called Pitcher plants.  Apparently some people call them Monkey Cups, because monkeys have been observed drinking out of them.  But I’ve never heard anyone call them that before.  Maybe that is more common in the areas where they grow in the wild – and where there are actually monkeys in the wild to drink from them.  These plants grow natively in tropical Asia and Australia.

The Nepenthes genus consists of plants that produce wide and deep pitchers for collecting bugs that are lured into the slick trap.  The lures come in the form of smell, taste and/or color.  The lure attracts the bugs, but the slick inner walls of the pitchers don’t allow the insects to escape.  Often the pitchers are filled with water and insects (or even small animals like rats and lizards) will drown in the pitcher.

Nepenthes climbing a totem

Though carnivorous, Nepenthes are not all about killing.  The large pitchers actually support some insects in the rainforests where they grow.  Flying insects like mosquitos will lay their eggs in the filled pitchers where they are safe until hatching and eventually flying away.

Other Nepenthes have developed special relationships with specific animals in the rainforest.  One particular Nepenthes has a symbiotic relationship with termites which like to eat the “hair” on the lip of the pitcher.  The colony doesn’t mind too much when a couple of less careful termites fall into the pit.  And the pitcher plant definitely doesn’t mind.

Nepenthes lowii has a very interesting relationship with tree shrews.  The pitcher serves as a stool where the shrews sit and sip the sugary exudate (think “nectar”) that is excreted from the plant.  Meanwhile, the pitcher serves as a toilet for the shrew’s excrement.  Apparently the excrement provides a large portion of the diet for this particular species of Nepenthes.

The Nepenthes truncata plant had HUGE pitchers.  I could have easily put my fist into one of them.  And these pitchers were somewhat attractive, with lips that looked like wood.  I assume this is an adaptation to attract some specific insect, though I don’t know what.

You might assume that the pitchers themselves are the blooms of the plant.  Many other plants attract insects to their blooms for pollination.  However, Nepenthes produce blooms totally separate from their pitchers (as you can see below).  In fact, the carnivorous parts of all of these plants are independent of their blooms.  Strictly speaking, the carnivorous parts are actually just modified leaves.

Another popular genus of carnivorous plants is the Sarracenia.  The plants of this genus features a pitcher which grows upright from the base of the plant, unlike the hanging pitchers of Nepenthes.

As a side note, I watched a movie last week with a character who carried a “Saracen sword,” which made me wonder if there was anything to this name.  I wondered if maybe the Sarracenia genus – or even the larger family Sarraceniaceae – was named after the sword, due to the similar shape of the prominent upright pitchers, which are wider at the lip than at the base.  The other possibility is that the geographic locations of the Saracen people coincides with the habitat of these plants.  But that doesn’t work, because Romans coined the Saracen name in reference to the Muslims who lived near the Mediterranean and Arabia, while Sarracenia are from the New World (western hemisphere).  I haven’t found any reference connecting the names of the plant and the sword, but that remains my theory.

[Update 2010-09-01:  A friend informed me that the Sarracenia genus is named after Dr. Michel Sarrazin, a 18th century physician and botanist in Quebec, Canada.]

Sarracenia are called The North American Pitcher Plants, to distinguish themselves from the the Nepenthes genus.  They are found in wetlands throughout the eastern US and Canada.  The conservatory had several different Sarracenia on display.  The plant above was particularly attractive, with a blotchy white lip and lid of the pitcher.  Also, I was able to see this plant in bloom, which was just bizarre.  I hadn’t ever seen a Sarracenia in bloom, and I was in for a treat.  I can only describe the bloom as looking like two flowers pressed together.  It’s really weird in that your eye is drawn to the center of most blooms, but the center of this bloom is covered.  See what I mean below.

I really like the red edges of the bloom above, which belongs to the same plant as the picture above that.  I took a picture of the id tag on this plant, but the picture doesn’t reveal the full name, and I couldn’t find any similar names on the internet when searching for the full name.  Does anyone know what Sarracenia suffrutic… could refer to?  I think I’m just missing a couple of letters at the end of the species name.  However, most reliable sources I have found on the internet describe the Sarracenia genus as being fairly small, with just about 10 species, and none of the species have names like this one.  I’m thinking that it is probably a hybrid, but I still haven’t been able to find a hybrid with a name like this.

Sarracenia oreophila

I did manage to get the name of the plant pictured above, which was also displaying a really nice bloom.  This one really looked like two blooms pushed into one another, hiding their centers.  Considering the flower is the reproductive organ of the plant, Sarracenias are one of the few modest plants out there in the world, covering up their parts like Adam and Eve.

There is one particularly bad Sarracenia (S. flava) which actually has a narcotic mixed in the nectar on the lip of its pitcher.  Insects that partake of the nectar find themselves passing out and falling into the pitcher.  Maybe it’s ruthless, or maybe it’s a more humane way of taking the insect’s life.  If only we could know what the plant was thinking…