Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.29-1.32

Rules and Stuff
1) It's probably possible to vote more than once per poll, but please don't. If I believe that someone is voting repeatedly, I will throw out those results, repost the poll, and seriously question that person's priorities.
2) If you want to link to a poll on Twitter / Facebook / your blog / whatever and encourage your friends to come and pump up the support for your favorite plants, you are encouraged to do so.
3) You are also encouraged to leave comments on Rumble posts, if so moved.
4) All photos will enlarge if opened in a separate window/tab.
5) You can choose which plant is "best" according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself. My personal process is a bit convoluted.1
6) All polls will be open for three days.


Results for matches 1.13 to 1.16

The bracket selection was more or less random,2 so very similar plants occasionally wound up in competition with one another during the first round. Two such pairings happened in this batch, but y'all appear to have had no difficulty choosing one over the other. Interestingly, the vote proportions wound up being eerily similar for each of the four contests in this set, with the winner getting about 67% of the vote in each case.

Match 1.13 saw Ficus maclellandii beating Schefflera elegantissima easily, 71 to 34, despite both plants having a narrow/pointy/treelike thing going on. I guess this means that some of you have tried to grow S. elegantissima.
In match 1.14, the votes were similar, in favor of Strelitzia nicolai and S. reginae over Guzmania cvv., 69 to 37.

Ficus maclellandii and Strelitzia nicolai/reginae both advance to match 2.7, where they will face off against one another. That won't be posted until October 8, which hopefully will be enough time for me to decide which one to vote for.

Match 1.15 was the other one where I thought maybe the combatants were maybe too similar, both being pretty common vining plants, but you guys chose Philodendron hederaceum cvv. over Syngonium podophyllum cvv. by, again, about a two to one margin (68 to 37).
And finally, in match 1.16, Dracaena fragrans cvv. handily defeated Saxifraga stolonifera, 71 to 36. Except not handily, because they don't have hands. Rootily. Leafily. Something like that.

Philodendron hederaceum cvv. will face Dracaena fragrans cvv. on October 8, in match 2.8, which will also be a difficult one for me to vote on. Maybe I should just not vote that day.

But there are votes to be cast today, so have at 'em:

Match 1.29
Pachira aquatica (money tree) vs. Pilosocereus pachycladus

(Pachira aquatica.)


(Pilosocereus pachycladus.)






Match 1.30
Cordyline fruticosa cvv. (ti plant) vs. Euphorbia lactea cvv.

Clockwise from top left: Cordyline fruticosa 'Florica,' species, NOID, NOID which might be 'Chocolate Queen,' 'Kiwi.'


Clockwise from left: Euphorbia lactea, Euphorbia lactea crest grafted onto a E. drupifera base, crested E. lactea.






Match 1.31
Ravenea rivularis (majesty palm) vs. Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant)

(Both Ravenea rivularis.)


Both Mimosa pudica. Left photo belongs to, and is used with permission from, Liza Wheeler at Good to Grow.






Match 1.32
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (tropical hibiscus) vs. Dracaena sanderiana (lucky bamboo, ribbon plant)

All unidentified cvv. except left center ('Mrs. Jimmy Spangler') and bottom right ('Sunny Wind').


(Dracaena sanderiana, variegated cv.)






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1 I'm deciding according to a hypothetical situation in which all of my houseplants are gone, as are all the other houseplants of the world, except for one producer/supplier/retailer. Said person is offering to restock me with one or the other of the plants in question but refuses to give me both. Which one would I choose?
2 (I had a list of plants in Excel, created a column of random numbers next to it, then sorted according to the random numbers. I swapped a few plants around after that, if it looked like two plants that would be very popular were facing off against one another in the first round, so the end result is not strictly random, but it's pretty close.)


2 comments:

Liza said...

I hope I'm not throwing off your results. One minute, I'm voting for the plant I like best, the next, for the plant that's more readily available in nurseries. Or not prone to spider mites. Or ugliness.

Yeah, I'm all over the place with my votes.

Even though I've never seen a Mimosa pudica in a nursery, I'm still pulling for Miss Mimosa to sneak a win!

mr_subjunctive said...

Liza:

Hey, remember: "You can choose which plant is 'best' according to whatever criteria you decide for yourself." (Alternately. . . .)

Mimosa's looking good so far. (Partly luck in getting paired with a weak opponent, I suspect.) We'll see.