Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.13-1.16

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.

Match 1.13
Ficus maclellandii (long leaf fig, alii fig) vs. Schefflera elegantissima (false aralia, Dizygotheca elegantissima)

(Ficus maclellandii.)

(Both Schefflera elegantissima.)





Match 1.14
Guzmania cvv. vs. Strelitzia nicolai/reginae (white/orange bird of paradise)

(Various unidentified Guzmania cvv.)

Clockwise from left: Strelitzia nicolai, S. reginae flower, S. reginae.





Match 1.15
Philodendron hederaceum cvv. (heart-leaf philodendron) vs. Syngonium podophyllum cvv. (arrowhead vine, nephthytis)

Clockwise from top left: Philodendron hederaceum 'Brasil,' P. hederaceum micans, NOID, P. hederaceum 'Aureum' or something similar, species, P. hederaceum 'Frilly Philly.'

Clockwise from top left: Syngonium podophyllum 'White Butterfly' (?), NOID (possibly 'Confetti'), 'Pink Margarita,' NOID.





Match 1.16
Dracaena fragrans cvv. (corn plant) vs. Saxifraga stolonifera (strawberry begonia)

Clockwise from top left: Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana,' 'Sol,' 'Massangeana,' 'Sol,' 'Massangeana.'

(Both Saxifraga stolonifera.)





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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?

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

As you might imagine, my week was mostly consumed with the beginnings of the RATJ. Had I known what a crazy huge amount of work it was going to be,¹ I would probably have tried to get it all lined up before announcing that it was going to happen, but oh well. The first round, all sixteen days' worth of it, has been written and scheduled, so now it's just a matter of waiting to see the results come in, and try to figure out what it all means.

While this was going on, we had a prolonged power outage on Wednesday night. The local electric company had notified us that this was going to happen, but they'd told us two or three weeks ago, and we'd forgotten about it. Things turned out fine anyway (the power went out just as dinner was ready), but we wound up going down to the basement to hang out after dinner, and it was there that Sheba discovered a medium-sized black dog watching her from behind a large mirror, who had no smell but was giving her increasingly threatening looks. So we got to be sort of alternately entertained by and embarrassed for her, as Sheba defended us against her reflection.

Does not recognize herself in a mirror.
On the plus side, I feel (somewhat) safer -- her German shepherd ancestry does, apparently, kick in when she thinks something threatening is going on, and we had wanted a pet that could be a guard dog if the circumstances called for one.²

The power was back on after a couple hours; according to the power company, this is supposed to make our connection to the grid more reliable or something. If true, that'd be great -- we lose power here a lot. It's never more than just a flicker (often the clocks don't even need to be reset) but it's just long enough to shut off my computer, and then I lose whatever I was working on, plus I have to wait fifteen minutes while I restart the computer and re-open the applications I was working in and so forth.

Anyway.

I attempted to get a photo of Nina this week too, but as usual, she darted into the Pellionia when she saw the camera, and then a couple days later I got the usual signed 8 x 10 glossy in the mail. It's not that I don't appreciate the effort (how is she even getting to the Post Office?), but it's not really what I'm wanting from her. So frustrating.

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¹ No individual step is particularly difficult or time-consuming, but there are a lot of steps, most of which require repetitive cutting and pasting of text, and they all have to be done accurately and (sometimes) in a particular sequence, so the overall project winds up being pretty time-consuming and tedious:
*Create 16 new posts.
*Copy and paste the rules and footnote to each one. (16x)
*Change the footnote references for each post. (4x/post)
*Number the "Match" lines. (4/post)
*Copy and paste the competitors. (8/post)
*Italicize the competitors' botanical names (~9/post)
*Add the labels for each post (9/post)
*Change the date and time for each post so they go up on their appointed days. (x16)
*Add in links to past plant profiles, where appropriate. (~3/post)
*Create a collage of pictures for each of the eight plants in each post, and upload to the RATJ photo bank. (Which is just an unpublished blog post; it's easier to keep them all in one place, already uploaded, and it'll make it easier to find them later when I have to re-use photos for the later rounds of the RATJ.) (8/post)
*Caption the collages with variety or species IDs, where appropriate. (8/post)
*Paste the collages from the photo bank into each post. (8/post)
*Create 64 new polls.
*Change the times on the polls to end on their appointed days. (x64)
*Copy/paste the code for the polls into the RATJ posts. (4/post)
*Publish the RATJ posts. (x16)
² (One remains slightly concerned that, her German shepherd side having manifested to chase off an intruder, the Labrador retriever side might then kick in, causing her to chase down the intruder and drag him/r back to us so s/he could be chased off again.)

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.9-1.12

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.

Match 1.9
Dracaena reflexa cvv. vs. Hylocereus/Gymnocalycium grafts

Clockwise from top left: D. reflexa 'Riki,' 'Anita,' 'Song of India,' 'Song of Jamaica.'

(Assorted Gymnocalyciums grafted to Hylocereus.)





Match 1.10
Asparagus spp. (asparagus fern) vs. Cissus rhombifolia cvv. (oakleaf ivy, grape ivy)

Clockwise from top: Asparagus setaceus, A. densiflorus 'Myersii,' A. macowanii.

Top left and bottom right: Cissus rhombifolia. Top right and bottom left: C. rhombifolia 'Ellen Danica.'





Match 1.11
Euphorbia pulcherrima (poinsettia) vs. Aglaonema cvv. (Chinese evergreen)

(Various unidentified Euphorbia pulcherrima cvv.)

Clockwise from top left: Aglaonema 'Emerald Bay,' 'Brilliant,' 'Mystic Marble,' 'Sparkling Sarah.'





Match 1.12
Oxalis triangularis cvv. (shamrock) vs. Jasminum spp. (jasmine)

(All Oxalis triangularis NOIDs.)

(Both Jasminum sambac, because that's all I had pictures for.)





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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?

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.5-1.8

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.

Match 1.5
Saintpaulia cvv. (African violet) vs. Hemigraphis exotica (purple waffle plant)

Saintpaulia cvv.
Top row, L-R: NOID, assorted NOIDs, NOID.
Middle row, L-R: NOID, NOID, NOID.
Bottom row, L-R: 'Harmony's Red Star,' 'Mellow Magic' close-up, NOID.

Hemigraphis exotica, species.





Match 1.6
Cyclamen persicum (florists' cyclamen) vs. Echinopsis spp.

Assorted NOID Cyclamen persicums.

Unidentified Echinopsis sp. Probably.





Match 1.7
Pachypodium spp. (Madagascar palm) vs. Epipremnum aureum cvv. (pothos)

L-R: P. lamerei, close-up of P. lamerei trunk, NOID.

Clockwise from top left: Epipremnum aureum 'Neon,' 'Marble Queen,' 'N'Joy,' trained on a totem.





Match 1.8
Scindapsus pictus (satin pothos) vs. Crassula ovata/argentea/arborescens (jade plants)

(All Scindapsus pictus, possibly different cvv.)

Clockwise from top left: variegated Crassula ovata, C. ovata 'Gollum,' C. arborescens var. undulatifolia, C. ovata.





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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?

Question for the Hive Mind: Solanum sp.

I found these berries growing in an alley next to somebody's shed or garage or something last year at around this time (1 October) and thought they were sort of neat, so I took pictures, but then I didn't post the pictures because I didn't know what they were. I checked Wikipedia recently, and based on that, I'm pretty sure about the genus (Solanum), but there are quite a few possibilities for the species, including S. americanum, S. nigrum, and S. ptychanthum.


I realize that it would probably be easier to make an ID if there were a picture of the leaves too. (At the time, I figured I'd be easy to identify from the berries alone and didn't think I'd need anything more than that.) If it can't be determined from these photos, does anybody at least know which of the three species in question would be most abundant in Eastern Iowa?

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.1-1.4

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.

Match 1.1
Kalanchoe tomentosa (panda plant) vs. Clivia miniata cvv.

Clockwise from top left: Kalanchoe tomentosa, K. tomentosa flower, K. tomentosa, K. tomentosa 'Chocolate Soldier.'

Top: Clivia miniata. (Picture by Guérin Nicolas at Wikimedia Commons.) Bottom: NOID cv.




Match 1.2
Peperomia obtusifolia cvv. (baby rubber plant) vs. small hybrid Vriesea cvv.

Left: P. obtusifolia 'Golden Gate.' Right top and bottom: P. obtusifolia variegata.

(All unidentified Vriesea hybrids.)




Match 1.3
Ficus elastica (rubber plant) vs. Cryptanthus cvv. (earth star)

Clockwise from top left: F. elastica 'Burgundy,' NOID, 'Tineke' (or some similar cv.), 'Burgundy.'

Clockwise from top left: C. 'Elaine,' C. 'Black Mystic,' NOID, NOID, NOID.




Match 1.4
Yucca guatemalensis (spineless yucca) vs. Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)

Clockwise from top left: Y. guatemalensis, NOID variegated cv., NOID variegated cv., sprouts from cane section cuttings.

(Both T. pallida.)




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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?

Pretty picture: NOID Cattleya Alliance

Another orchid picture that wasn't taken at the orchid show in March; this was for sale at the ex-job. (That happened to be in March also.)

I don't know if they didn't have it identified or if I just didn't bother to get the ID, but I like it. It's not that it's a cattleya type, though I do like those, and it's not that it's pink, though that doesn't hurt it either. I think the main thing it's got going for it, as far as I'm concerned, is that it's not ruffly. Ruffles are a turn-off.

Random plant event: Euphorbia trigona 'Red'

I bought my E. trigona 'Red' two and a half years ago, a little before leaving the garden center job. It survived fine and was willing to grow for me, but it didn't produce any branches, on any of the five stems in the pot, for the first two years I had it. This seemed especially strange because the green version of the same plant was branching a lot.

So this spring, I divided the five stems into individual four-inch (10 cm) pots. Four months later, three of the four that remain (one was traded away) are beginning to branch. This makes me happy, in that they're doing what they're supposed to do, and a little anxious, because this signals that they're going to become increasingly top-heavy in a hurry, and they were already pretty top-heavy. But overall I think I'm more pleased than anxious.

I don't know if the timing is just coincidence or not. It makes sense that crowding cuttings in a pot might inhibit them from spreading out, that maybe they have some sense of how close their neighbors are and behave accordingly. (I have vague memories of reading something to that effect once, even.) But it's also possible that this had nothing to do with the division, and is instead a much-delayed reaction to the fertilizer I started giving them six months earlier. Has anybody else had this experience before, where a Euphorbia started branching when it got different treatment?

Pretty picture: Ipomoea sp.

I'd guess I. violacea, but I'm not sure. Wikiposedly there are some 500 Ipomoeas, and I don't have any idea how many of those are common enough that they might have wound up in the cornfield behind the house. I. violacea seems like a reasonable guess, from what I see while googling.

The cornfield is also home to a couple Helianthus sp. (possibly H. tuberosus?), though those are a lot harder to photograph, being tall, and so far I've been unsuccessful. Though it's possible that I've only tried once.

Rumble Among the Jungle: final contestants list

Here are the 128 plants who will be competing in the Rumble Among the Jungle. I regret that I was unable to include everybody's suggestions (really I do), but I included some. (A lot of which ones made it and which didn't had to do with photo availability.)

I've already decided the matchups, so at this point all we're waiting for is 1) the creation and posting of the actual polls and 2) some slightly more representative photos than what the nominations post used.¹ So it'll still be a few days.

I have my guesses as to which plants will wind up in the later rounds, but I don't want to influence the results, so I'll keep my opinions to myself. (If you really want to know, you can e-mail and ask me.) I'm not unhappy with the one I think will win, though I don't especially like most of the plants that I think will make it to the quarterfinals.

Feel free to use the comments to tell everybody which plant you think will win, or which one you want to win, or whatever.

1. Adenium obesum (desert rose)
2. Aechmea fasciata (silver vase plant)
3. Aeonium spp./cvv.
4. Aeschynanthus lobbianus / radicans (lipstick plant)
5. Agave spp.
6. Aglaonema cvv. (chinese evergreens)
7. Alocasia amazonica 'Polly' (african mask plant)
8. Aloe vera (medicinal aloe, burn plant)
9. Anthurium cvv. (flowering anthuriums, not foliage anthuriums)
10. Aphelandra squarrosa (zebra plant)
11. Araucaria heterophylla (norfolk island pine)
12. Ardisia crenata (coral berry)
13. Asparagus spp. (asparagus fern)
14. Asplenium nidus / antiquum (bird's-nest fern)
15. Austrocylindropuntia subulata monstrose (Eve's needle)
16. Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palm)
17. Begonia cvv. (rhizomatous begonias)
18. Begonia rex-cultorum cvv. (rex begonia)
19. Calathea cvv.
20. Cattleya alliance orchids
21. Cereus peruvianus
22. Cereus tetragonus (fairy castle cactus, Acanthocereus tetragonus, Cereus hildmannianus)²
23. Chamaedorea elegans (parlor palm)
24. Chlorophytum comosum (spider plant)
25. Cissus rhombifolia incl. 'Ellen Danica' (oakleaf ivy, grape ivy)
26. Clivia miniata cvv.
27. Codiaeum variegatum cvv. (croton)
28. Coffea arabica (coffee plant)
29. Cordyline fruticosa cvv. (ti plant)
30. Crassula ovata / argentea (jade plant)
31. Cryptanthus cvv. (earth star)
32. Cycas revoluta (sago palm)
33. Cyclamen persicum (florist's cyclamen)
34. Davallia and other furry-rhizomed ferns like Polypodium/Phlebodium (rabbit's-foot fern, hare's-foot fern, bear's-paw fern, kangaroo fern)
35. Dendrobium cvv.
36. Dieffenbachia cvv. (dumb cane)
37. Dionaea muscipula (venus flytrap)
38. Dracaena deremensis cvv.
39. Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana' (corn plant)
40. Dracaena marginata cvv. (madagascar dragon tree)
41. Dracaena reflexa cvv.
42. Dracaena sanderiana (lucky bamboo, ribbon plant)
43. Dracaena surculosa (gold-dust dracaena)
44. Echeveria cvv. and intergenerics (Pachyveria, Sedeveria, etc.)
45. Echinocactus grusonii (golden barrel cactus)
46. Echinopsis spp.
47. Epipremnum aureum cvv. (pothos)
48. Episcia cvv. (flame violet)
49. Espostoa lanata, Oreocereus trollii, & Cephalocereus senilis (old man cacti)
50. Euphorbia ammak / ingens / trigona
51. Euphorbia lactea cvv.
52. Euphorbia milii (crown of thorns)
53. Euphorbia pulcherrima (poinsettia)
54. Ficus benjamina (weeping fig)
55. Ficus elastica cvv. (rubber plant)
56. Ficus lyrata (fiddle-leaf fig)
57. Ficus maclellandii (long-leaf fig)
58. Ficus pumila (creeping fig)
59. Fittonia albivenis cvv. (nerve plant)
60. Gardenia jasminoides (gardenia)
61. Guzmania cvv.
62. Gymnocalycium spp.
63. Gynura aurantiaca (purple passion plant)
64. Haworthia spp.
65. Hedera helix (english ivy)
66. Hemigraphis exotica (purple waffle plant)
67. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (tropical hibiscus)
68. Hippeastrum cvv.
69. Hoya carnosa cvv. (wax plant)
70. Hylocereus/Gymnocalycium grafts (moon cactus)
71. Hypoestes phyllostachya (polka-dot plant)
72. Jasminum spp. (jasmine)
73. Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (flaming katy, kalanchoe)
74. Kalanchoe luciae / thyrsiflora (flapjack plant)
75. Kalanchoe tomentosa
76. Lithops cvv.
77. Mammillaria cvv./spp.
78. Maranta leuconeura cvv. (prayer plant)
79. Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant)
80. Monstera deliciosa (swiss cheese philodendron)
81. Musa / Ensete cvv., esp. E. ventricosum (ornamental banana)
82. Nematanthus cvv. (guppy plant)
83. Nephrolepis exaltata cvv. (boston fern)
84. Oncidium alliance orchids
85. Opuntia spp./cvv. (prickly pear cactus)
86. Oxalis spp.
87. Pachira aquatica (money tree)
88. Pachypodium spp. (madagascar palm)
89. Peperomia clusiifolia cvv.
90. Peperomia obtusifolia (baby rubber plant)
91. Phalaenopsis / Doritaenopsis cvv. (moth orchid)
92. Philodendron 'Autumn' / 'Prince of Orange' / 'Moonlight'
93. Philodendron hederaceum cvv. (heart-leaf philodendron)
94. Philodendron 'Xanadu' / 'Hope' / bipinnatifidum / 'Spicy Dog'
95. Pilea cadierei (aluminum plant)
96. Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk'
97. Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley'
98. Pilosocereus pachycladus
99. Platycerium spp. (staghorn fern)
100. Polyscias balfouriana / scutellaria (balfour aralia, dinner plate aralia, shield aralia)
101. Polyscias fruticosa (ming aralia, parsley aralia)
102. Portulacaria afra
103. Radermachera sinica (china doll)
104. Ravenea rivularis (majesty palm)
105. Rhapis excelsa (lady palm)
106. Saintpaulia cvv. (african violet)
107. Sansevieria cylindrica (wisdom horns)
108. Sansevieria trifasciata cvv. (snake plant)
109. Saxifraga stolonifera (strawberry begonia)
110. Schefflera actinophylla / arboricola (umbrella tree)
111. Schefflera elegantissima (false aralia, Dizygotheca elegantissima)
112. Schlumbergera cvv. (holiday/thanksgiving/christmas cactus, Zygocactus)
113. Scindapsus pictus (satin pothos)
114. Sedum morganianum / burrito (burro's tail)
115. Senecio rowleyanus and S. radicans (string of pearls / string of bananas)
116. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)
117. Strelitzia nicolai / reginae (white/orange bird of paradise)
118. Stromanthe sanguinea cvv.
119. Syngonium podophyllum cvv. (arrowhead vine, nephthytis)
120. Tillandsia cyanea (pink quill)
121. Tillandsia spp. (air plants)
122. Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)
123. Tradescantia spathacea incl. variegated (moses-in-the-cradle, oyster plant)
124. Tradescantia zebrina (wandering jew)
125. Vriesea cvv. (small hybrids)
126. Vriesea splendens (flaming sword)
127. Yucca guatemalensis (spineless yucca)
128. Zamioculcas zamiifolia (zz plant)

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¹ The volume of photos necessary for that post, and the likelihood that some of them wouldn't be reused, meant that some of them weren't really representative of the range of appearances for some of the plants, especially the ones where a lot of varieties or species were being grouped into a single category. I'm not going to be exhaustive about it, but I don't want everybody to just vote for the prettier picture, either.
² There's a lot of confusion about which species name is correct for the fairy castle cactus, but Cacti Guide uses C. tetragonus, and it's the shortest to type, so I'm going with that.

Random plant event: Cereus peruviuanus

My two biggest Cereus peruvianus have not been well-treated lately. They're just too big to fit anywhere in the house except the spot right by the plant room door, and even that isn't going to be working much longer:


At which point I intend to follow Cactus Blog's directions for cutting back a cactus, and hopefully that will work out for everybody and then I'll have three cacti I can mistreat.

But this post isn't about the tall one; this post is to note that I saw a bud on the short one the other day.


Branch bud? Flower bud? At this point, I have no idea which; I don't have much experience with either, and this is still pretty darn small. (Anybody know?) I've never gotten either one on my personal plants, unless you count the one that branched below the soil line. (It still hasn't poked through the soil. Clearly waiting for some kind of signal, I gather.) So whatever it is, I'm happy about it, I think.