The Variegated Thumb

I recently obtained two new orchids in plant trades.  Both of these are terrestrial orchids, which is different from the bulk of my collection.  Also, they are both among the group of orchids with more attractive foliage than flowers.

Oeceoclades maculata

Oeceoclades maculata is native to west tropical Africa, but has been introduced in the Americas, from Argentina to Florida, where it is spreading rapidly.  [By the way, the genus Oeceoclades is pronounced ee-see-o-CLAY-dees, or o-ee-see-o-CLAY-dees.]  This species has the common name of “Monk’s Orchid.”  The foliage resembles, and is often confused with, plants from the genus Sansevieria, commonly called “Snake plant” or “Mother-in-law’s Tongue.”  The distinguishing characteristic is the pseudobulbs which are exposed about the soil surface.

Sarcoglottis sceptrodes

Sarcoglottis sceptrodes is native to the Central American countries of Ecuador and Nicaragua.  The plants grown in cultivation have been selected from those with the best foliage, so those in nature are less distinctly marked.  It has the common name of “Portilla’s Sarcoglottis,” which isn’t a lot easier to say than the actual genus and species.  The foliage on this plant is velvety and iridescent.  Very nice.

After I found a Spiranthes growing in my front yard, my mother-in-law was determined to find some of her own.  She found a group of several on a hill on their property.  As an experiment, she dug up all but one of these plants carefully and placed the clumps of soil in four different pots.  She gave two pots to me and kept two for herself.  She also marked the one left in the ground by placing a couple of pieces of scrap wood around it.  In addition, I had potted one Spiranthes I found growing in my neighborhood.

I placed the three pots in my greenhouse and enjoyed the little time left they had of their dainty white blooms.  Then they turned brown and have just sat there.  I’ve wondered whether bringing them into a year-round warm environment would mess up their natural cycle of seasons they would have otherwise experienced in the ground outdoors.  Recently my two pots from my mother-in-law of dead stalks started to change – green leaves began to emerge from the soil, right next to each deceased stem.  At first I wasn’t sure that it had anything to do with the Spiranthes, thinking maybe it was just something else in the soil (maybe even a grass) that was  coming up.  But I realized that the leaves were directly associated with each of my old Spiranthes stems.  And then about a week later a couple of leaves broke through the soil surface in the potted Spiranthes from my neighborhood.

New leaves emerging from my Spiranthes tubers

Now there is a rosette of 3 or 4 small leaves surrounding each deceased stem and they are coming up from more than one location, making me think the Spiranthes tubers have produced offsets under the soil.  I checked to see if the marked Spiranthes still in the ground at my in-laws house was also producing these leaves and it is not.  Right now my theory is that the potted Spiranthes are taking advantage of what they must consider a warmer than normal Fall and going for another round.  They may or may not send up another flower stem.  They might just be putting up leaves to produce chlorophyll and energy which can be transferred to the tubers as stored energy for next year’s growth.  Either way, it’s an interesting experiment.  Since Spiranthes are so wide spread in the United States, I’m not at all worried about experimenting with these volunteers that came up in our yards.  Hopefully I’ll have something exciting to report in a couple of weeks time.

After seeing some beautiful blooming plants at the Volunteer Park Conservatory in June, I purchased some Epiphyllum cuttings a couple of months ago from eBay.  Epiphyllums are the genus of plants commonly referred to as the “Orchid Cactus.”

New growth from my non-identified Epiphyllum

The picture above is clearly a cutting from another plant.  It will probably take about 3 years before the plant is mature enough to produce a bloom.  I bought this cutting as an unidentified variety, so I don’t know what color the blooms will be when they come.  The plant below is a little more mature and might bloom in another year or two.  This one (below) is the species Epiphyllum anguliger, which has a white bloom and the outer most petals (called “tepals”) are light orange or yellow.  The tepals of Epiphyllums are generally much narrower than and a different color from the rest of the petals in the bloom.  Before the bloom actually opens, the tepals are all that you see, so the color is deceiving until the bloom opens.  I have noticed this before with Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera).  You can google image search for “Epiphyllum anguliger” to see pictures of the blooms of my plant below.  Generally Epiphyllums bloom in Spring or Fall, as I understand.

New growth on my Epiphullum anguliger

My friend in Hawaii, Leland, recently sent me starts of several plants in his garden.  He has a large garden where he can grow all of these tropical plants in his yard year round.  I am jealous of his surroundings, but very appreciative of his generosity.

One of these is the beautiful Medinilla plant.  We don’t know exactly what species this is, but I am looking forward to seeing it’s foliage and eventually the colorful blooms.  Since Hawaii has strict import and export laws for vegetation, Leland sent the Medinilla plants without any leaves, so I don’t yet know what the plants look like.  I have seen a large Medinilla in bloom on several different occasions at the Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City.  It is a stunning plant! Mine is slowly beginning to form some leaves at several of the nodes along the stems.

Medinilla leaves beginning to emerge

He also sent several Aroids, including Philodendron linnaei, Philodendron campii (=P. ‘Lynette’), Philodendron martianum, Philodendron billietiae (colorful clone), Philodendron billietiae (green), and Monstera lechleriana.  Here are some pictures:

Philodendron martianum, collected by Roberto Burle Marx.

This is a very unique Philodendron, with the large swollen petioles leading up to the leaves.  As a young plant, it reminds me of Zamioculcas zamiifolia, the ‘ZZ Plant’.  But as it grows, this plant will be very different.  Leland says that his leaves have gotten several feet long and several feet wide.  But my plant is special for another reason than it’s appearance.  This plant is a division of a specimen given to Leland by his friend, Roberto Burle Marx, who collected the plant in Brazil.  It’s wonderful to know the heritage of my plant and to know that it came from Roberto is amazing.  Roberto was a very interesting artist (particularly with landscapes) in Brazil and has many plants named in his honor.

Philodendron linnaei

Philodendron linnaei has interesting lanceolate leaf blades, with a wide midrib.

Philodendron campii (aka 'Lynette')

I could probably write dozens of posts about our meeting this last Saturday at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.  Instead, I think I’ll write two or three posts, focusing on a couple of topics.  This post, is just some picture highlights from the conservatory.

Plant swap table beginning to fill up

After a morning full of talks and a nice lunch from Jason’s Deli, we held a plant swap among those who attended. There were so many plants that they overflowed the table and were spread out on the floor.  Philodendron, Monstera, Rhaphidophora, Anthurium, Amorphophallus, and even some Begonia and Orchids were available for trade.  It was a gigantic free-for-all and everyone benefited.

Urospatha in bloom

Out in the hallway by the entrance to our meeting room, the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens had on display a beautiful and tall (approximately 7 foot) Urospatha in bloom.   This was an incredible plant with uniquely marked stems and an amazing bloom, whose spathe curved away like in an elegant arc.

Great group of plant friends beginning a tour of the FWBG conservatory

There were about 15 people in attendance and everyone really enjoyed themselves.  Some of us knew each other from previous meetings and email discussions and others were meeting for the first time.  There was even one long-time IAS member who has been a well-known figure in Aroids for 30 years or more.

Crepuscular rays shining into the conservatory. It felt like the Garden of Eden.

The conservatory at the FWBG is very well kempt.  The plants are in great condition and there is a nice collection of Aroids, as well as several other families of plants that I like to grow (like Marantaceae).

Our hands-on tour guide, John Langevin, showing off a plant

We were given a guided tour by John Langevin, who was generous enough to offer several of us cuttings or small plants from different parts of the collection, contributing lots of plants to our plant swap.  He was very knowledgeable about the collection and made the tour enjoyable.

Fruit and seeds from Theobroma cacao (Chocolate tree)

John removed one of the fruits from the chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao) and cut it open so that we could taste the pulp which surrounds the seeds.  I thought I smelled something resembling chocolate when he opened the fruit, but what I tasted was very different.  The pulp had more of a mild citrus taste with the texture of a slimy banana.   I brought two seeds home with me and will see if I can get them to germinate.

Calathea ecuadoriana

I knew from my previous visit that the conservatory has a really nice collection of Marantaceae, but I was surprised to see a species of Calathea that I hadn’t seen before.  Calathea ecuadoriana looks very similar to Calathea zebrina and Calathea warscewiczii, which are already hard enough to separate!  They all have rich, deeply-colored, velvety leaves of green and purple.

Beautiful pendant Anthurium

There were a number of nice Anthuriums growing in the conservatory.  One of my favorites was the simple pendant Anthurium pictured above.  I like the long, slender leaves of the pendant Anthuriums.

The rare inflorescence of Scindapsus pictus

Many people grow the Scindapsus pictus, sometimes called Satin Pothos vine, in their homes.  I have one on my desk at work and one in our dining room at home.  In most cases, these plants are grown in hanging baskets, or just in regular pots.  Rarely are they grown in a situation where they can scale a wall, as they like to do in nature.  This “shingling” habit is their preferred growth type.  Even in locations where they are grown shingling on a rock wall, they rarely bloom outside of their natural habitat.  However, the plants growing in the FWBG conservatory have bloomed regularly.  We got to see one of these early-stage inflorescences on Saturday.  What impressed me was the shape of the inflorescence, almost spherical in comparison to most other Aroid blooms.  It is also interesting that the plant blooms on pieces of the vine which have detached themselves from the wall where the rest of the plant is shingling.

Calathea loeseneri bloom

Calatheas are not known for their blooms, but for their foliage. However, there are a couple of Calatheas that have very nice blooms (and much less interesting foliage).  One of these is Calathea loeseneri, which was in bloom this Saturday on our visit.  I was lucky enough to get to take home one stem of this plant.

Metallic fishtail palm (Chamaedorea metallica)

The so-called Fishtail palms are given the common name designation because of the shape of their leaves.  Usually these palms are smaller than the more typical palm specimens which reach towering heights of 70-100 feet.  John told me that this particular palm (Chamaedorea metallica) stays smaller and has colorful fronds, making it a good specimen for a houseplant.  I really liked the silvery coloring of the leaves, no doubt the reason for it’s species name of metallica.

Screwpine Palm (Pandanus)

The Screwpine Palm (Pandanus sp.) is interesting because of the gigantic roots which are sent out in all directions to support the large tree.  The Screwpine growing in the FWBG conservatory was right next to the water and the roots which landed in water burst into thousands of smaller roots (below).  I imagine the roots which burrow into the ground do something similar.

Screwpine Palm (Pandanus) roots in water

One Alocasia caught many people’s eyes as we passed on our tour.  Unfortunately, this plant did not have an ID tag anywhere in sight.   Maybe I’ll be able to get an ID online.

Unidentified Alocasia with unique coloration - Update: Caladium picturatum