The Variegated Thumb

In December I posted about my new Philodendron ‘Xanadu’ plant.  This plant has been growing very successfully for me (this time around) for nearly 3 months, which is longer than I kept the other one alive.  Now I know the trick: don’t water it – ever.  Well, that’s a little harsh.  Don’t water it unless you’re certain you haven’t watered it for a month.

I imagine that trick will get modified slightly when I take the plant outdoors this summer, but for now, that works pretty well.

Recently I discovered that not only can I grow this plant, I can grow this plant like no one else can!  What I mean by that is that my plant has some weird mutations.

Mutation #1:

Two stems of my Xanadu are fused together all the way from the base of the stem to the first lobe of the leaves.  [Xanadu leaves have 6-8 lobes on each side.]

Fused Xanadu leaves and stems

I just checked the photo I took of my Xanadu when I bought it and I can see the 2 fused leaves.  So they were there from the beginning and just slipped my notice until now.

Mutation #2:

The other odd mutation is a small “leaflet” that is rising from the midrib near the base of one of the leaves.  I don’t think this leaflet was there from the beginning.

tiny Xanadu leaflet

Neither of these mutations appears anywhere else on the plant.  What are the odds that both of these two mutations would occur on the same plant?  [Don't try to calculate that.]

Mystery solved

I sent pictures and explanations of my two “mutations” to the International Aroid Society mailing list and received a response from none other than Julius Boos.  Julius first described Philodendron ‘Xanadu’ as a new species back in the Aroideana #25 in 2002.  He said the odd features are common deformations seen in this species and he suspects they are caused by the method by which the plant is propagated and produced.  Millions of these plants are grown by tissue culture and treated with different chemicals.  In volume 31 of Aroideana Julius describes the various chemical treatments that are used on ‘Xanadu’, their purpose and their suspected side effects.  It turns out that it is not all that rare for either of these deformations to be seen on Xanadus.

Julius said that in time (maybe years) my plant might grow out of the deformations.  I guess he is assuming that I don’t care for them.  However, I find them fascinating and the oddity just adds to the appeal of the plant.  I don’t really mind if my plant never grows out of them.

I was driving home from work a couple weeks ago when I noticed a huge piece of bark on the side of the road.  It had fallen off the side of a large tree that had been cut down.  The tree had been chopped off at the height of the fence (about 6′) and the bark slid off the tree several years later

Like a football scout (it is that season), I looked at it and all I could see was potential.  I came back that evening and loaded it up in my wife’s SUV.  Now it’s sitting on my back porch waiting to be put to good use.  The bark measures about 6 feet x 2.5 feet.  You should be able to see from the picture how big it is.  It also has really good character.

Me holding up the prized piece of bark. Look how big!

The only problem is deciding what to do with it.  I have a couple of ideas, but haven’t acted on anything yet.  Mainly my ideas focus on climbing plants.

1. I could construct a sort of stand and mount the bark on it, holding it upright.  Then I could start to train some of my climbers to attach to it.  I have a lot of good plant candidates (mostly Aroids) for this.  I have just begun to train a couple of my Aroids to climb up some stakes I made.  These are Philodendron microstictum and Scindapsus pictus (one of my favorite plants).

Clippings of Scindapsus pictus that I have staked for climbing.

2. One of the most common uses for bark among “planty” people is for mounting orchids.  However, I am kind of out of my orchid swing right now.  I have had as many as 5 orchids in the past, but I only have one right now and it has moved to my mother-in-law’s house because it wasn’t doing very well under my care.  This huge piece of bark would look amazing covered in orchids, but if I decide to use it in that manner I’ll be putting it on hold for now.  I’m also not sure if this bark would be most appropriate for mounting orchids.  I suppose it couldn’t hurt.  But orchid-mounting bark usually is more porous and can be soaked in water.  This piece of bark would not be a good fit for that kind of use due to its size, as well as its texture.

Do you have any ideas about how this great piece of bark could be used?

Almost a year ago I bought a large Philodendron ‘Xanadu’ from Home Depot or Lowes – I don’t remember which.  It was on a huge discount (less than $5 with tax) because it wasn’t doing so well.  I figured that the garden people had overwatered it or it had gotten too much sun.  I figured it was a Philodendron, so it would require about the same care as my other Philos.

My original Philodendron 'Xanadu' with brown leaves showing

The problem with my Xanadu was that it had been overwatered and had probably already started to rot.  When I bought it several of the leaves had already turned brown (as you can see in the picture above) and the others were soon to follow.  Plants Are the Strangest People has a good post on Philodendron ‘Xanadu’ and how they react to water – by melting.  It wasn’t long before all of my leaves had turned to mush at the base and fallen off.  I held out some hope that new stems would rise from the base, but after a couple of months I pitched it.

Having read a little more about Philodendron ‘Xanadu’ since my catastrophe, I was determined to try out another one.  It really is an attractive plant, and I am now a bit of an Aroid collector.  Last week I ventured over to Home Depot, hoping to find some tropical plants that they would be overjoyed to get off their hands now that we’re having freezing temperatures overnight in Oklahoma.

I was right!  There weren’t a lot of tropical plants, but the few they had, they were trying to get rid of.  They had 4 Philodendron ‘Xanadu’s marked at an unbelieveably low price of $3.98.  I picked out the nicest looking one – this time showing no signs of rot – and took it to the cashier.  Since the label had been saturated in water, it had started to deteriorate and would not scan.  The cashier tried to find another plant of the same value, but couldn’t, so he rung it up as $2.67!  Needless to say, I walked away very happy.

My new Philodendron 'Xanadu'

Here’s my new ‘Xanadu.’  This time I am going to keep a close watch on my plant and be sure not to overwater this one, knowing how sensitive it can be.

Philodendron 'Xanadu' - Notice the beautiful red mid vein

I started a plant journal (on paper) in the last month.  I decided to start keeping track of my plants as they grow, as well as document any new plants I get.  I have spent most of my journaling time not talking specifically about my plants, but about plant knowledge I have gained recently.  When Russ sent me a box stuffed full of Aroids, I did a lot of image searching of the different plants he had sent me.  A number of these plants have 2 distinct leaf habits, which is common among many Aroids, especially Philodendrons.  Leaves in the first stage – the immature or juvenile stage - are usually smaller and more simple looking.  Although sometimes the juvenile leaves are more colorful.  When the plant matures leaves can become much larger and often develop splits or holes.  This maturation process is usually instigated by the plant beginning to climb high up the trunk of a tree.  The splits and holes in the leaves enable the large leaves of the plant to be more resistant to wind.  The Epipremnum pinnatum v. ‘Cebu Blue’ that I received from Russ has small, lance-like, pale blue leaves.  As the Cebu Blue matures, the leaves can grow to several feet and have large splits in them.  If you are not familiar with this characteristic of many Aroids, you would find yourself trying to convince me that these could not be the same plant.  But they are!

Many plants displaying the ‘immature’ habits are called ‘shinglers.’  I found an International Aroid Society article about these.  The immature flat, round leaves lay up close to the climbing surface, sometimes overlapping and looking like shingles.  One of the best examples of a shingler is a Scindapsus pictus.

I just learned today that the characteristic of multiple distinct leaf habits is called heteoroblastic development.  I think the word is a fitting analogy for my hobby with plants.  My hobby has recently gone through a transformation that makes my old hobby look like a different species of hobbies.  But it’s the same me and the same love of plants that’s underlying this hobby.

Here’s some other miscellaneous knowledge that I recently gained.  Several times in picture captions I have seen a Genus name and then the word ‘NOID.’  ‘NOID’ means ‘No Identification’ or ‘Not identified.’  From what I can tell, this can mean that the person does know what species the plant is, or it has literally not been classified yet.

Also, I’ve known that v. stands for ‘variety’ but I had never even seen ‘f.’ before until Russ was identifying one of my Aglaonemas as A. commutatum v. maculatum f. maculatum.  Apparently f. means ‘forma.’

Guess what?  Someone occasionally stumbles upon my little seldomly-updated plant blog.  Recently I received an email from Russ Hammer, who has been growing aroids for many years.  He had stumbled upon my post on Aglaonemas and was wondering if I would like to make a trade with him.  Unfortunately my meager collection didn’t have any species or varieties that he has not already collected.  But he offered to send me a bunch of plants for just the price of postage.  You can bet I jumped on his offer.  I was counting down the days for my box to arrive.  When it did, I spent several hours potting the 28 different plants he sent me.

Rather than try to imbed pictures in my blog here (which usually means they are tiny), I have made a photo album of my pictures of the plants after I got them potted.  You can view the album, by clicking on the Aglaonema below. 

Russ also sent me a lot of information on Aroid culture and pictures of his mature plants.  I will probably post some of those pictures later.

Here is the list of the plants he sent me.  All of them are pictured in the photo album, with the exception of one of the monsteras, which I had not yet potted whenever the pictures were taken.  I’ll get it added soon enough.

Philodendrons
P. ilsemanii
P. ‘mini belle’
P. ‘Painted lady’
P. microstictum
P. ‘Florida’
P. mexicanum
P. red duchess
P. royal queen
P. ‘King of Spades’ or P. ‘Ace of Spades’

Aglaonemas
A. maria christina
A. jubilee
A. Abidjan
A. white lance
A. black lance
A. modestum variegate
A. royal ripple
A. alumina v. armandii
A. green lady
A. new unidentified variety

Monsteras
M. standleyana
M. adansonii
M. deliciosa v. Borsigiana

Epipremnums
E. pinnatum v. ‘Cebu Blue’
E. aureus ‘neon’

Syngoniums
S. pink
S. ‘Byrd’

Other Aroids
Dieffenbachia unidentified variety
Zamioculcas zamiifolia (‘zz plant’)