Spring Growth Pt. 2

Here is the promised follow-up to last post.  Yes, I know it’s more than “a few days” late, but I doubt there’s anyone following this blog and actively waiting for updates.  These pictures are a month old, so there has been some more growth since then.  I’ll post updates if anything truly exciting happens.  Anyway, here we go!

unknown aroid

Here is an aroid of some sort that a friend gave to me.  If anyone knows what it might be, let me know!  It’s hardy here in NYC (apparently zone 6b), and must be related to jack-in-the-pulpit.  Unfortunately, the inflorescence was slightly past its peak when I took this picture, as evidenced by the browning on the tip of the spadix and top of the spathe.  That aside, this is an utterly ridiculous flower spike.  It’s almost a parody of a normal aroid inflorescence.

For those of you not familiar with this type of inflorescence, here’s how it breaks down.  The long, pointy thing coming out of the top is the spadix.  The part wrapped around it is the spathe, and it covers and protects the actual flowers on the base of the spadix.  In the picture below I’ve pulled of the spadix to reveal the separate clusters of male and female flowers.

the deconstructed inflorescence

This closeup shows how the spadix is actually fused to the spathe on the back, a fact which surprised me.  The male flowers are on top, and the female ones are below.  Aroids usually prevent self-fertalization by releasing pollen when the female flowers are not receptive to pollination.

And now for a completely different biome!  I grew this puppy from seed:

Adansonia digitata

Yes, this is my very own baobab seedling.  The trees are native to Australia, and develop huge, swollen trunks at maturity.  This gives them the colloquial moniker “bottle tree.”  You can see that the base of this one is already swelling, giving the trunk a nice taper, even at just a few months old.  I find this both surprising and pleasing.  I’m not sure why the leaves are so vertical, but for some reason they have moved to a more horizontal position since this picture was taken.  The species name alludes to the fact that the mature foliage of this plant is palmately compound, which is to say that it looks like a hand.  The young leaves, as seen in the picture, are borne singly.  During the winter this will get a dry dormant period to simulate the alternation of wet and dry seasons in its natural habitat.

And here is a true desert gem:

Welwitschia mirabilis

These three (along with one other in a different pot) are my babies.  Also raised from seed which I got from Silverhill Seeds in Cape Town, South Africa.  This plant is one of the famous limit cases of botany, an adaptive extreme.  They live in the Namibian Desert in Namibia and Angola (and maybe a tiny bit in South Africa).  As the picture shows, each plant has two “leaves.”  The bottom pair, however, are the cotelydons, and will fall off within the year.  The top two leaves, amazingly, are the only ones the plant will ever produce.  Rather than grow new leaves, Welwitschia elongates these two leaves continuously from the bottom.  Eventually the desert wind will split them into ribbons that pile up on top of themselves, giving the impression of multiple leaves.  These are technically gymnosperms, which makes them more closely related to pine trees than to anything that flowers.  It’s well worth doing a search for large older plants.  They hypothesize that some of the desert specimens are upwards of 2,000 years old.

To transition back to the tropics, a few posts ago I mentioned a Brassavola that I won at the Manhattan Orchid Society raffle a few months back.  Here, belatedly, is the picture of it.

Brassavola cordata

You can see a fair amount of dead stuff on here.  Like I said, I am rescuing it from the brink of death.  The short left growth is new since it passed into my care.  The right hand leaf that’s cut off by the bottom of the picture is substantially longer, even with half of it dead and removed.  The little guys hitching a ride on the top are Florida strap ferns (Campyloneurum phyllitidis) that I put there to see if they would grow.  So far they haven’t grown, but they haven’t died either.

I know I promised pictures of an orchid flower last post, but I’m going to renege since I think this post  is long enough for now.  Perhaps the flower will get an entire post of its own.  Additionally, keen eyes will have noticed new plants on my plant list (who am I kidding, no one actually noticed that).  These will get their own writeup with pictures ex post haste.

In the meantime, happy growing!

Spring Growth

Spring has finally arrived in New York City, and it has brought along with it some nice new growth on a few of my plants.  Also, I finally have some actual pictures of my own to show you guys!  Here goes:

Tillandsia xerographica

I got this guy as a birthday present back in late January, and he’s barely done anything since then.  There were a few weeks where some of the bottom-most leaves died and it didn’t put out equal growth on top, so I was worried.  However, it seems to now have adjusted to my apartment.  I’m trying to give it more light, and hopefully the onset of spring will spur it into action.

Encyclia cochleata

A seedling from everyone’s favorite south Florida orchid species Encyclia cochleata, though some people are now classifying it as Anacheilium cochleatum.  They created this new genus for the non-resupinate Encyclias.  This is a fairly young plant that I mounted a few months ago.  The biggest growth plus the one to the right are all new since the mounting.  It hasn’t really wanted to attach itself, but I’m hoping that will change with the next psuedobulb or two.

Dendrobium sp.

Here’s an adorable keiki from an old Dendrobium cane I had (which itself was a keiki from a plant at the Vanderbilt greenhouses).  I haven’t the foggiest idea what species it might be, and it’s not going to be near blooming size for a while, so I guess I’ll just keep taking care of it until then.

Encyclia bractescens

This is my other Encyclia species.  It stays pretty small and compact with terminal sprays of delicate flowers.  This plant was theoretically blooming size when I bought it (said Oak Hill Gardens).  You can see four new growths in the picture above, which is awesome.  I think only three of them are going to develop.  The smallest one in the back middle of this picture has stalled out and sadly seems like it’s going to abort.  C’est la vie.  I am still hopeful for inflorescences on the other new growths.

Bulbophyllum frostii

Bulbophyllum is probably my favorite orchid genus (I’m weird that way).  This is a great compact miniature with maroon “Dutch shoe” flowers.  I also got this one at blooming size from Oak Hill Gardens (that place is amazing).  It’s put out two new pseudobulbs since I’ve had it.  In the pic above you can see a new growth on the central pseudobulb on the right hand side and right above it.  Unfortunately, I think the top one has also aborted (inexplicably).  The growth in front on the bottom also has a new growth hidden on the underside.  Not sure when it might flower.  I don’t think I’m giving it enough light.

I think that’s all for today.  I have some more exciting pictures, but I don’t want to give away all the goodies at the same time!  Hopefully I’ll post those in a few days, and then keep on a more regular schedule.  Coming up next post: an aroid inflorescence, some cool desert plants, and an orchid flower!

New Addition!

So I’ve been a member of the Manhattan Orchid Society (MOS) for a few months now (since I moved here in September).  For any readers in the NYC area interested in orchids, I would highly recommend it.  The meetings are always fun and informative, and the group is full of great people.  At any rate, every meeting they have a raffle table where members bring in extra plants that they don’t want.  I shelled out $2 for five tickets.  Considering the large number of plants, I had a good likelihood of getting picked eventually, but I feel like I always have bad luck with these things.  Eventually, my number did come up, to my relief and surprise.

Having perused the table beforehand, I knew exactly what I wanted.  There was a mostly-dead-looking mounted Brassavola cordata that I felt I could rehabilitate from the brink.  It only had one actual leaf (half of which had died back), but I saw that there were several pseudobulbs still alive and green, and that there were, in fact, a number of growing leads that, with love and attention, would soon be taking off.  All in all, I felt that this plant had a lot of potential to look very nice in 6 months to a year.

My initial problem was that the day after the MOS meeting I was scheduled to go home to Chicago for a week.  I put a friend in charge of my plant watering (no small task) and took off.  She performed valiantly in the face of the daunting, Herculean feat put in front of her.  However, apparently this particular Brassavola needed more than a misting every other day.  Most of the new growth died back on me.  It still has the (half) leaf and three other pseudobulbs.  I think I see one, maybe two, leads that still look alive.  I’ve upped my misting frequency and volume, and hopefully these new leads will hang in there and grow into healthy new leaves.  It’s condition has stabilized since I got back almost two weeks ago, so I’m feeling optimistic.  I find it odd, however, since I’m growing a Brassavola nodosa that seems happy with mistings once a week.  Pictures might be coming soon.  Maybe.  Hopefully.

Til next time, happy growing!

Rainy Day in NYC

I’m currently working on a post about my growing setup.  I just need to get my camera up and running (i.e. figure out how to take non-crappy photos with it).  Until then, I won’t have much to post on here.

Next week I’ll be heading back to Chicago for a week.  It looks like it’s going to be cold the entire time (highs in the low 40’s), so there won’t be any pictures of spring, unfortunately.  However, I hope to make it out to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  I’ll definitely post pictures if that happens.

What I do have are some slightly older pictures of the Vanderbilt University greenhouses.  I volunteered there for four years, so I got to know the collection pretty well. Here are some plants from it:

Bulbophyllum macranthum

This is a Bulbophyllum whose species name I’ve forgotten (edit: it’s B. macranthum).  When mounted it grow around the branch at a 45 degree angle counter-clockwise.  The growing tip is also covered in a clear mucus-like goo which probably acts as an anti-fungal agent.  As you can see in the photo, the flowers are non-resupinate, meaning that it is “upside down” compared with most other orchid species.  There is some debate as to which orientation is actually “right side up,” but the majority of species do have the lip as the lowermost part of the flower (here, there yellow structure).

Grammatophyllum measuresianum

This isn’t a very good pictures of this plant, but I took it backlit like this so that you could see the nearly clear root-tips.  In person the roots kind of acted like fiber optic cables when they were in full sun.  This pictures highlights a growth habit called “basket roots” where the roots of certain orchid species grow upwards into the air forming a basket that catches debris.  The debris gets stuck in the roots and eventually decomposes into fertilizer for the plant.  The genus Grammatophyllum is home to the largest orchid in the world, G. speciosum, with pseudobulb canes up to 8 feet long.

Dendrobium and Napenthes

Yet another orchid from the Vandy greenhouses.  This is a Dendrobium species.  Hanging from it you can see some old pitchers from the tropical pitcher plant genus Napenthes which are beginning to undergo senescence, or aging/dying back.

Dendrochilum longifolium

This is a nice specimen-sized Dendrochilum longifolium.  The long inflorescences have two rows of yellow-orange flowers that smell like a citrus-scented house cleaner.  Yes, they smell like lemon pine-sol or something similar.  Here’s a neat shot of one of the flower spikes:

Trippy spiral, dude.

The paler yellow things aren’t actually part of the flower, but are bracts that occur above each flower.  Bracts are modified leaves.  Pretty cool, huh?

Well, I think that’s all for now.  More updates before too long, I promise.  And be looking for pictures from Chicago in the next two weeks.

Until next time, happy growing!

Require Additional Photons

Just a short post today.  I’m still waiting for my camera to show up in New York after it’s long trip from Chicago.  Once it arrives I can commence taking photos, and this blog will hopefully become a much more colorful and active place.  Apologies in advance for the lack of things to look at.

For the nonce, however, I would like to briefly complain about the difficulties of being an indoor “gardener” in Manhattan.  I put “gardener” in quotation marks because I’m doubtful the term can really apply to someone who never puts plants in the actual ground.  You know, that thing we stand on which plants have been growing for the past several hundred million years.  Apparently people do this thing called “container gardening,” but it seems to me that shouldn’t really apply to single plants grown in pots that stay strictly indoors.

So…I’m not really a gardener at the moment.  That said, being a person-who-grows-plants is a hard row to hoe when you live in a major metropolis.  I will have pictures of my setup before too long, but for now allow me to describe it.  I live in a one-room studio of approximately 400 square feet.  Actual adults living in real houses or grown-up apartments are free to be shocked by this.  However, coming from four years of living in a 100 sq ft dorm room in undergrad, my tiny little studio has more than adequate living space for me.  Or at least it would if I didn’t have to share the space with 40+ plants, most of which are whiny attention whores.

I have three windows with sills approximately 3 ft x 7 in.  This actually isn’t bad at all for an apartment the size of mine.  The much bigger issue is that they face more or less due east.  (The Manhattan street grid runs almost-but-just-not-quite north and south, and everyone refers to these directions as though they were absolute.  What this means is that though my windows face “east,” I do get a slightly southern exposure.)  Combine this with the fact that I live on the fourth floor of a twelve story building surrounded by other eight-to-fifteen story building, and I wind up with approximately one hour of direct late-morning sun every day.  If I just grew a few low-light houseplants, that would be fine, but my plant list shows this is clearly not the case.

So, there is a major photon shortage in my apartment.  I’ve attempted to ameliorate this problem through the use of various clip-on lamps (pictures to come, I promise!).  At present I count seven compact fluorescent bulbs used exclusively to make the plants happy.  I’ve had relatively good success with this setup so far, but it does mean that I pretty much have to go out and buy a new clip-on light every time I have a new arrival.  The setup I would like to have would be a wire shelving unit with four foot fluorescent light fixtures on it.  But I encountered another problem with Manhattan.  All of the hardware stores are complete jokes.  They sell almost nothing I ever need, much less a four foot shop fixture.

So far I’ve managed without, but I find myself several high-light desires.  First off, there are the Eschscholzia californica seedlings that are actually going to get a lot taller than I anticipated, and which will require more light than I’m currently giving them.  Then there are the two items at the top of my wishlist.  The first is Amorphophallus konjac.  This is a pretty neat genus of plants which have large underground corms that produce a single leaf each year.  The leaf of A. konjac can be  six feet tall, and the four foot tall inflorescence smells like rotting meat.  Yes, this is the plant that I want.  I’m trying to figure out if this is impractical or utterly insane considering my space and light restrictions.  I think the novelty of it might win out in the end.  If so, I’ll post a full profile of the plant, including a lot of other really cool information that this  post is already too long to include.

The second plant I’m really wanting at the moment is any member of the Lithops genus.  These are the “living stones” that you occasionally see at botanical gardens, or even some plant stores.  Again, if I get them, I’ll post more information on the genus.  Suffice it for now to say that they grow in quartz flats in South Africa and are accustomed to at least twelve hours of bright desert sun every single day.  I’m thinking of growing them from seed.  If anyone has tips on growing this genus from seed, input would be great, though probably I should just dismiss the whole project as insane

Well, that post sure ended up longer than I expected.  Congratulations if you read the whole thing.  If you skipped to the end, congratulations also, because you saved yourself from reading a long and not very interesting post without any colorful pictures.  That being said, here is a picture.  Just a few examples of the Lithops genus that I’m apparently so keen on:

Happy growing!