In Updates on 17 May 2012 with tagged Conservatory of Flowers, Philodendron
A couple weeks ago, I posted about ontogeny, using one of my Philodendron as an example of a plant with different leaf shapes. The plant has turned out to be kind of a mystery, stumping some of my most knowledgable botanical friends.
I bought the plant from a SF Botanical Garden sale, and its tag just said “Philodendron from Conservatory.” Yesterday I was visiting the SF Conservatory of Flowers because it’s my favorite place in the city and it happened to be my birthday, and I think I found the mystery Philodendron parent plant.
You can see that, if this is the adult form of the leaf, the side lobes to get quite a bit wider over time. So my current guess is that it’s Philodendron tripartitum (or a hybrid with lots of that as a parent). But it’s all guesswork without a flower, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
If you’d like to see the plant for yourself, it’s in the Aquatic Plants room, in a mass of other plants, by the glass wall where you can see into the pool. If you’d like one of your own, you’ll have to drop by a future SFBG plant sale.
In Links on 15 May 2012 with tagged Orchards, Rainforests, Thrips
We read the botanical web so you don’t have to. In this edition: Thrips in amber, plants for sale, wild orchards, and restoring a rainforest.
Dinosaur-Era Insects Frozen in Time During Oldest Pollination
I’m currently fighting an invasion of Thrips in my houseplants. Nice to be reminded that they help plants in addition to eating them. Maybe I should try sealing them in amber. (Thanks to Leland for the tip.)- Plants are the Strangest People: Plants for Sale 2012
Mister Subjunctive runs one of the best, most helpful, and consistently funny plant blogs around, and once a year he sells some of his plants. I bought some last year and they all did great. Support a great site and get some amazing plants by buying some yourself.
- Wild orchard: A food forest grows in Seattle
A pick-what-you-like fruit farm. Greens the city and feeds the hungry. I want to do this to every empty lot I see.
- Willie Smits restores a rainforest
When you have 20 minutes to spare, watch this video. It’s a practical guide for taking turning a wasteland into a paradise, saving orangutans, growing food and community, all at the same time. Inspiring.
Seen any good botanical links lately? Please share!
In Updates on 14 May 2012 with tagged Amorphophallus, Titan
Just a quick update on the Titan project. It’s been six months since I planted Betty’s berries and I now have a small family of Titans (aka amorphophallus titanum).
Since Titans produce seeds infrequently, the seeds themselves germinate at different rates – a handy evolutionary advantage so that the seeds don’t compete with each other. So even though I planted all the seeds at the same time, you can see that they’re all at different stages of growth.
In Timelapse Videos on 13 May 2012 with tagged Amorphophallus, Aroid
Of all the timelapse videos I’ve done, I’ve never seen a plant move around as much as this Amorphophallus henryi in the middle stage of its opening. Just watch it boogie and compare it to the relative stillness of the plants in the background.
Amorphophallus henryi, 5 shots per minute during daylight for 12 days.
Though it looks like a small tree, what you see here is actually a single leaf. If you followed it down into the soil, you’d see it’s coming from a bulb (aka tuber). The tuber alternates between putting out a leaf or a flower each season. The flower is huge, deep red, and stinks like rotting flesh to attract pollinators. Since I’m seeing this leaf dance now, it means I’ll have to wait to see (and smell) its flower another year.
In Experiments on 8 May 2012 with tagged Seedlings, Tomatoes, Vegetables
A couple months ago I was slicing up a store-bought tomato for a salad when I noticed the seeds inside looked darker than usual. Upon closer inspection, I realized that they had germinated and were growing inside the tomato! It was like turducken for vegetarians.
I decided not to eat them because everything besides the fruit of tomato plant is poisonous. Strange, but true. They’re in the same family (Solanum) as other notable poisonous plants such as Brugmansia and Datura (aka Nightshade and Angel’s Trumpet).
But like any good gardener, I couldn’t just toss them out. So I took a couple and put them in a small pot. Here they are, two months later, starting to look a lot like a tomato plant.
So what happened here? I’m no botanist, but I do know how to use a search engine, and the consensus is that there’s a gel sack around each seed in the tomato fruit that contains a germination inhibitor. This is the transparent stuff inside a tomato. The idea is, this inhibitor keeps the seeds from germinating until they’re on the ground where they can grow.
In this case, that inhibitor failed and the seed started to grow inside the tomato. This apparently can happen in fruit that’s kept cold for a long time, as this one may have been, but it’s a rarity. If my little plantlet makes it to fruiting stage (also a rarity for me), I’ll see if the same thing happens.
Has this ever happened to you?
In Word of the Day on 7 May 2012 with tagged Conservatory of Flowers, Philodendron
Here’s something I never knew about plants until I started paying attention: a single species can have different leaf shapes over the life of the plant. In fact, some can have different leaf shapes on the plant at the same time. For example, the four leaves below are all on the same plant.
All these leaves are alive on the plant right now. The ones on the left are older, the ones on the right are newer, but they’re all active and working.
I picked up this plant at a SF Botanical Garden sale, labeled only as “Philodendron from conservatory.” I have no idea what species it is, or even if it’s a hybrid. There aren’t many trilobed Philodendron, but I haven’t found one with such narrow side lobes. Plus, I don’t know if it’s done evolving yet. Its ultimate leaf shape may yet be different.
What’s going on here is called “ontogeny,” which is about how an organism changes size and shape over time.
Philodendron like this come from jungles, where early life is damp and dim. A thick canopy of trees blocks most light from reaching the ground, so plants evolved to have a juvenile, vine-like state that climbs to the top of the canopy. (“Philodendron” means “tree lover” because of their tree-climbing.) As they get closer to the top and light increases, the plant transitions to its adult leaves and becomes more bush-like. Eventually leaves can change shape and color so much that you’d never guess it was the same plant.
Many common houseplants are jungle natives that spend their lifetimes stuck in a juvenile state because they’re kept indoors, which is a lot more like the jungle floor than the canopy. This Philodendron, no matter how tall he grows, will never reach the jungle canopy of his dreams, but he will reach a bright window and I can’t wait to see if his leaves continue to change.
UPDATE: 17 May 2012: I think I found the parent plant.
In Updates on 4 May 2012 with tagged Dendrobium, Orchids, Seeds, Sex
Back in March, I attempted to cross two Dendrobium that happened to be blooming at the same time. After a promising start, the pod fell off. Undaunted, I tried again, and this time it’s looking good.
I pollenated the flower on 31 March, so it’s about 5 weeks old at this point. I have no idea how long small Dendrobium pods take to mature (the Phalaenopsis pod took about 9 months), but if it keeps going I may have another pod for flasking.
In Photos on 3 May 2012 with tagged Flasking, Orchids, Paphiopedilum, Seedlings
When I was researching Troy Meyers for my orchid seeds pods, I couldn’t help but do a little shopping. They have a wide selection of orchid flasks. You can reserve them in advance and they’ll send them when they’re ready.
I selected a hybrid of two Paphiopedilum gratrixianum cultivars: ‘Foster’ and ‘Olympic’. I received the deflasked seedlings today and there were at least two dozen individual plants there (three, if you count the really tiny ones that probably won’t make it). I put them all together in a community pot with Sphagnum as a medium.
The cool part about this is how much detail Troy Meyers has on each flask. You can see the flowers of the parent plants and even photos of the seeds. So, according to Troy Meyers, the plants I have were just seeds in January 2010. That means they’re now two years, three months old.
Orchids and patience go well together.
In Photos on 25 March 2012 tagged Dendrobium, Orchids, Seeds
Since the Phalaenopsis Impregnation Saga has been going so well, I decided to try my hand at pollinating another orchid. This time I crossed two small Dendrobium and it looks like it worked! Check out the swollen stem on the flower at the bottom.
The plant in this photo is a Dendrobium kingianum, a small Australian orchid (previously mentioned here). The pollen came from a Dendrobium I picked up at the Pacific Orchid Expo from H&R Orchids that goes by the name “Micro Chip” and is a hybrid between two New Guinea Dendrobium: D. aberrans and D. normanbyense. So, if this pod produces offspring, it’ll be a hybrid of a hybrid.
UPDATE: 31 March 2012: I spoke to soon! The nascent pod fell off. I’ll have to try again.
In Updates on 24 March 2012 tagged Backyard, Bloom, Flowers, Geranium
I mentioned my love for the giant Geranium maderense in my back yard a few weeks ago. I think she appreciated the positive reinforcement, because she started to bud right afterward. She’s now putting on quite a show.
I can’t help but feel a little melancholy at the display. Since she’s monocarpic, the blooms mean she’s not long for this world. Still, if you’ve gotta go out, you might as well go out in an explosion of beauty.
Hopefully she’ll leave a new generation behind. I’ll be on the lookout for seeds.
