Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 2.1-2.4

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.

Results for matches 1.49-1.52:

In match 1.49, you bastards chose Adenium obesum over Episcia cvv., by a margin of 73 to 44, in what I am forced to conclude was a horribly misguided attempt to upset me. WELL IT DIDN'T WORK! I'M FINE! NOT UPSET AT ALL!²
Match 1.50 was quite close, a lot closer than I expected it would be, but in the end, Zamioculcas zamiifolia scraped together a victory over Alocasia amazonica 'Polly.' The score was 63 to 49.

Adenium and Zamioculcas will throw down in match 2.25, on 13 October.

Ficus benjamina cvv. defeated Begonia rex-cultorum in match 1.51, by a score of 70 to 44.
Finally, match 1.52 looked for a while like it was going to be a blowout -- Haworthia cvv. was at one point getting nearly 81% of the vote against Asplenium nidus / A. antiquum -- but some Asplenium supporters showed up at the last minute and reduced Haworthia's lead. Haworthia still wins, though, 80 to 39.
Ficus benjamina cvv. and Haworthia cvv. go up against one another on 13 October as well, in match 2.26.

And now, we begin round two.

Match 2.1
Clivia miniata cvv. vs. small hybrid Vriesea cvv.

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

(All unidentified Vriesea hybrids.)





Match 2.2
Cryptanthus cvv. (earth star) vs. Tradescantia pallida (purple heart)

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

(Both T. pallida.)





Match 2.3
Saintpaulia cvv. (African violet) vs. Echinopsis spp.

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.

Unidentified Echinopsis sp. Probably.





Match 2.4
Epipremnum aureum cvv. (pothos) vs. Crassula ovata/argentea/arborescens (jade plants)

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

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?
² (*sob*)

List: Succulents Which Don't Need Full, All-Day Sun (But Might Nevertheless Prefer It)

The initial inspiration for this list comes from a post at Garden Web by someone whose apartment only gets partial sun, who still wants to be able to grow some succulents inside. The post has received one response (as I write this), and I mostly agree with what that responder said, but that's no reason not to write a post about it.

This is also a question I've had to face fairly directly myself, since the main flaw of the house is its disappointing lack of south-facing windows. (The few it does have are partly obstructed by the neighbors' house and our garage, alas.)

Most of the stuff in this list that I've personally grown still gets at least a couple hours of afternoon sun or all-day bright artificial light, so don't take this as the final word on what you can grow in these conditions -- it'll depend on how big of a window you have, how obstructed it is, and so on. But if you have a spot with some sun, just not all-day sun, you should still be able to grow:

Agave victoriae-reginae. I wouldn't believe this if I hadn't done it myself, but my largest, oldest victoriae-reginae has been in a west window for the last two years and is apparently just fine with that. (The leaves are perhaps a little further apart than they would be in a brighter spot, and I'm not sure if they're maybe not also a bit longer. But still. Doable.) It's not even very close to the west window. I don't recommend any other Agave species for anything other than full sun or extremely bright fluorescent light, though.

Beaucarnea recurvata. My Beaucarnea and I have only recently started getting along, more or less since I switched fertilizers. I've never really had the option to give it full sun, but it hasn't seemed to mind that too much, so long as it got some direct sun. It's presently close to a west window.

Cereus peruvianus. I've tried a lot of cacti here -- at one point, cactus-collecting was verging on becoming a full-blown thing for me -- and most of them just don't seem to be able to cope without a lot more light than I can provide. Cereus peruvianus is one of the few that can handle a west window without getting all etiolated and weird. They don't bloom, they don't grow fast, but the base of the plant remains roughly the same size as the new growth.

Dischidia ruscifolia. Dischidia ruscifolia seems perfectly content to live in a semi-obstructed east window in the husband's office, and has been doing so for long enough that I think it's safe to say that it could keep doing so for years.

Euphorbia NOID. I've been calling this plant "Euphorbia kokopelli" in my brain, because the shape sort of resembles the deity as he is commonly portrayed --


-- but you may or may not see the resemblance. The plant's height has forced me to try to grow it in less than ideal locations, and it's performed admirably in them. Currently, it gets only artificial light, and not even very much of that, yet it still grows, and it looks the same as it ever did.

I got E. "kokopelli" from someone through Garden Web, and have never had an ID for it, or even much of a guess as to an ID, so if you thought to yourself when you saw the above picture, oh, that's obviously a Euphorbia ___________, you should leave me a comment telling me what you thought.

The above picture that's a plant, not the above picture that's a humpbacked flute-playing fertility god.

Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia. Haworthias are pretty reliable plants for reduced-sun spots; I had one in a north window, where it never got any direct sun, for a couple years, and it did fine.

Ledebouria socialis. My history with Ledebouria is complicated. My plants have done better in a south window than in the west window where they currently reside, but fertilizer is a large part of that, and to be honest, they're also not terribly close to the west window, so I still think an east or west window should provide sufficient light for a Ledebouria.

Selenicereus chrysocardium. Jungle cacti are pretty flexible about light, as a group. My observations are that Selenicereus chrysocardium will grow faster with more light, but otherwise it behaves the same -- the stems aren't smaller, the color's the same, etc. My best results to date have been with the plant in a hanging basket, suspended below a shop light, but they've grown fine in minimal fluorescent light as well, just a lot more slowly.

Senecio rowleyanus. Senecio rowleyanus initially grew in a good spot in a west window, but it was slow, and stems periodically would just up and die for no obvious reason. The reason I know this wasn't a light problem is because it's been in the same spot this spring and summer, growing like a monster, and the only thing that changed was the fertilizer. (Again, I know. But fertilizer is sometimes very important.)

Stapelia gigantea (and probably other Stapelia spp.?). My Stapelia actually burned when I first brought it home, which you can actually see a bit on the stems in the picture. I thought I was being nice, giving it a spot outside where it could get all the light it could possibly want, but instead it burned. Ungratefully. So it came inside, and has been growing nicely in a west window ever since.

Ordinarily I would pick out three of these to recommend especially at this point, but I'm fairly fond of all of the above plants, and I've already talked about them a little, so we'll skip that part this time.

Not shown:

• Albuca bracteata? (formerly Ornithogalum longibracteatum)
• Aloe 'Blue Elf' (may be A. x humilis 'Hedgehog')
• Aloe harlana
• Aloe vera
• Aloe 'Walmsley's Blue'
• Alworthia 'Black Gem' (will grow beautifully, though color will be green instead of brown/black; it takes a lot of light to turn one brown/black)
• Cissus quadrangularis
• Epiphyllum spp.
• Euphorbia milii
• Euphorbia tirucalli
• Euphorbia trigona
• Gasteraloe x beguinii
• Gasteraloe 'Midnight'
• Gasteria bicolor var. lilliputiana
• Gasterworthia 'Banded Pearls' or 'Royal Highness' or whatever it is; Gasterworthias in general, really
• Hatiora spp. including H. salicornioides
• Haworthia attenuata
• Haworthia limifolia var. ubomboensis
• Haworthia NOID maybe retusa
• Haworthia tessellata
• Hoya bella
• Hoya carnosa
• Hoya kentiana
• Hoya lacunosa
• Hoya polyneura
• Huernia zebrina
• Mammillaria spinosissima (though spines will likely be less colorful)
• Pachypodium spp.
• Pedilanthus tithymaloides (Euphorbia tithymaloides)
• Peperomia clusiifolia
• Peperomia ferreyrae
• Peperomia obtusifolia
• Peperomia pereskiifolia
• Pseudorhipsalis ramulosa
• Rhipsalis grandiflora
• Rhipsalis rhombea (ID?)
• Rhipsalis teres var. heteroclada (ID?)
• Sansevieria cylindrica
• Sansevieria hargesiana
• Sansevieria trifasciata
• Schlumbergera cvv.
• Sedum morganianum
• Selenicereus anthonyanus
• Senecio macroglossus
• Synadenium grantii (Euphorbia umbellata)
• Zamioculcas zamiifolia

Explicitly NOT recommended for windows without full sun (and in some cases, not recommended indoors for windows with full sun either):

• Aeonium spp.
• Agave spp. that aren't victoriae-reginae
• Aloe congolensis
• Aloe juvenna
• Aloe 'Minibelle'
• Aloe variegata
• Anacampseros rufescens
• Astrophytum myriostigma
• Astrophytum ornatum
• Bryophyllum daigremontianum
• Bryophyllum tubiflorum
• cacti generally (though there are a few exceptions)
• Crassula falcata
• Crassula muscosa
• Crassula perforata
• Crassula rupestris
• Echeveria spp.
• Euphorbia anoplia
• Euphorbia drupifera
• Euphorbia enopla
• Euphorbia flanaganii
• Euphorbia grandicornis
• Euphorbia horrida
• Euphorbia pseudocactus
• Hylocereus spp.
• any Kalanchoe sp.
• Lampranthus blandus
• Lithops spp.
• Myrtillocactus geometrizans
• Pachyphytum cvv.
• Sedum burrito
• Sedum rubrotinctum
• Sempervivum cvv.

I lack sufficient experience with these to say one way or the other, or have had mixed results, or it grows fine but isn't as colorful, etc.:

• Adenium obesum
• Adromischus spp.
• Alluaudia procera (gets a hesitant thumbs-up at the Garden Web thread, but I've never tried to grow it personally)
• Aloe arenicola
• Aloe brevifolia
• Aloe dorotheae 'Sunset' (definitely won't turn red; still seems to grow okay, though)
• Aloe ferox
• Aloe 'Fire Ranch'
• Aloe greatheadii var. davyana
• Aloe maculata (A. saponaria)
• Aloe striata
• Aloinopsis rubrolineata
• Argyroderma spp.
• Browningia hertlingiana
• Ceropegia woodii
• Cissus rotundifolia
• Crassula arborescens
• Crassula ovata
• Dischidia nummularia
• Euphorbia ammak
• Euphorbia bougheyi
• Euphorbia lactea
• Faucaria spp.
• Furcraea foetida cvv.
• Gasteria 'pseudonigricans'
• Hoya obovata
• Isolatocereus dumortieri
• Leuchtenbergia principis
• Pleiospilos spp.
• Portulacaria afra
• Senecio crassissimus
• Senecio jacobsenii

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.61-1.64

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 1.45 to 1.48:

In match 1.45, Dracaena deremensis cvv. beat Nematanthus cvv., 62 to 44. (The Asparagaceae are having a good first round, in general; I have plans to discuss the results by family, once the first-round results are all in.)
Match 1.46 saw Gardenia jasminoides losing to Schefflera actinophylla / arboricola by 47 to 65, which I predict is going to upset some Gardenia-lovers.

Dracaena deremensis cvv. will next compete on 12 October, when they go up against Schefflera actinophylla and S. arboricola in match 2.23.

Match 1.47 was the one I was most interested in. I knew there are rabid fans of Hedera helix out there, but I wasn't sure how many. I still don't know exactly, but it's not enough of them to achieve victory over the rhizomatous Begonias: Hedera lost, 45 to 64.
Finally, in match 1.48, Sansevieria trifasciata cvv. defeated Lithops cvv., 77 to 46. This is about what I would have expected for most plants going up against Sansevieria, though.

Rhizomatous Begonias face Sansevieria trifasciata cvv. next, in match 2.24, on 12 October.

And now, the FINAL SET of first-round votes:

Match 1.61
Vriesea splendens (flaming sword) vs. Hippeastrum cvv. (amaryllis)

(All are Vriesea splendens, probably the cv. 'Splenreit.')

L-R: Hippeastrum NOID, Hippeastrum NOID (probably 'Apple Blossom?'), Hippeastrum NOID.
Left picture donated by Tigerdawn. Right picture is from Arpingstone, via Wikimedia Commons.





Match 1.62
Agave spp. vs. Cattleya alliance orchids

Clockwise from top left: Agave victoriae-reginae, A. americana medio-picta alba, NOID (maybe A. desmettiana?), A. marmorata.

Clockwise from top left: Cattleya aurantiaca, Potinara Eye Candy 'Sweet Sensation,' Sophrolaeliocattleya Hazel Boyd 'Debbie,' Potinara Eye Candy 'Mellow Yellow.'





Match 1.63
Opuntia spp./cvv. (prickly pear cactus) vs. Codiaeum variegatum cvv. (croton)

Various unidentified Opuntia spp.; the top left and bottom right plants might be O. microdasys. Center bottom plant might be too, but a different variety.

Clockwise from left: Codiaeum variegatum 'Petra,' 'Picasso's Paintbrush,' 'Revolutions,' 'Mrs. Iceton.'





Match 1.64
Calathea spp./cvv. vs. Radermachera sinica (china doll)

Clockwise from top left: Calathea ornata, C. roseo-picta 'Medallion' (?), C. makoyana, C. insignis, C. zebrina.

(Both Radermachera sinica.)





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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?

Walkaways Part 15

A few interesting plants I have declined to buy recently. ("Declined to buy" mostly in the sense of "was incapable of buying.")

Orthophytum gurkenii.
This was tagged "ORTH. GERKIANA." Googling found the correct name. Wholesalers aren't obliged to care, I guess.

This was unusually expensive for a 4-inch plant at the ex-job; I don't remember the precise number but I want to say $13. (A normal 4-inch plant is $7.) This has been happening a lot there, which concerns me because it seemed to begin with the Anthuriums.

What I know about the Orthophytum genus is that there is one, it's in the Bromeliaceae, and one of the species is called O. gurkenii; beyond that, I have nothing. I suppose if I had one, I would probably try to treat it like a Cryptanthus and see how that went, but I'd never even heard of them before, so that's totally a guess.

Striking-looking, though.

Codiaeum variegatum NOID.
I'm not particularly fascinated by crotons, normally, but this was a new type of variegation to me, and I do like it. It didn't make me want to buy the plant -- it's still a croton, whatever flashy new patterns it may be sporting -- but it works for me aesthetically.

Cyclamen persicum NOID.
Not a new plant, and not a particularly new variety of an old plant, either, but I was struck by the leaves; they seem more intricate than the usual Cyclamen leaf.

Cyclamen persicum NOID, close-up of a leaf.
I actually would have bought this -- I've decided that I like Cyclamens, even if they do look crappy for a while after they've bloomed -- but it was still a little pricey ($10, I think), and I don't have a good spot for one right now. But it's not like I'm not going to have other opportunities.

Ficus microcarpa (?), variegated.
I had to look hard at this plant several times before I decided that it probably wasn't a Ficus benjamina. The leaves were too thick and stiff, and the leaf tips seemed wrong in some hard-to-define way.

Ficus microcarpa (?), variegated, close-up.
I think what I was seeing was that the leaf tips are blunter on this plant than on most F. benjaminas, and the branches are less weeping than benjaminas usually are, but investigation in the photo archives shows that it's not quite as clear as that. Microcarpa isn't always blunt-tipped; benjamina isn't always pointed; there's overlap on both ends, and I actually have some plants that grew one type when young and a different type when old. And there's even more variability with the branches, depending on the environment. So I'm left with nothing but my own suspicion that this isn't a benjamina. (I did ask, but the person I asked didn't know.)

It'd either be the first microcarpa I've seen grown to full tree-size and the first variegated microcarpa I've ever seen, or it's the first big variegated benjamina I've seen in a few years. I didn't buy it because I wasn't really interested in buying it, and also because it was $120 (!), but it was interesting.

Philodendron martianum 'Gordo.' (Sold as P. cannifolium 'Gordo.')
I've seen these for sale very occasionally -- Wallace's, in the Quad Cities, has had them before -- but I've been leery about trying one because I didn't know anybody who's tried to grow one.

But! WCW was working the day I visited, and she actually has tried to grow one: apparently hers was just kind of miserable all the time. She said she couldn't figure out when to water it. It seemed to complain whether she did or didn't, and eventually it died, or was discarded, or something. (She didn't actually say what happened to it.)

Steve Lucas's page on P. martianum (warning: much taxonomic discussion at the link; not for the faint of Latin) suggests that she was probably keeping it too wet. They can be grown terrestrially or epiphytically, but prefer to be epiphytes (which might explain the need for the enlarged, water-storing petioles), so in theory they'd be accustomed to drying out relatively quickly and then having to wait for more water. I won't be testing this theory, because they wanted $50 for it, but it's a cool-looking plant either way. Maybe someday.

Finally, I don't have a photo, but I saw a Spathoglottis NOID in a hardware store in Iowa City for $10 something. It was in at least a 6-inch pot, too, which a 6-inch pot of anything for $10 is pretty good outside of a big box store. It didn't have any flowers, or an ID, but its leaves were all still dark green and healthy-looking. I thought about it.

In the end, I wound up buying something else, mostly on the grounds that although the Spathoglottis was an incredible deal and I would likely never ever see one that cheap again in my entire life, I've also never really had any desire to own a Spathoglottis. The ones at work always got bleached, black-spotted leaves after they'd been around a while. (My theory was too much sun or heat or both, but we didn't have them around regularly enough to test that.) Orchids and I are getting along much better since people told me about them needing ammonia-based nitrogen instead of urea-based nitrogen, but I'm not quite ready to open my home to any more of them just yet.

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.57-1.60

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 from matches 1.41 to 1.44:

Not many surprises from this set. In match 1.41, Dendrobium cvv. beat Ficus pumila 73 to 35, which I suppose is what Ficus gets for not having colorful flowers.
Match 1.42 was incredibly close, but in the end Beaucarnea recurvata defeated Sedum morganianum and S. burrito by a single vote (56 to 55).

Dendrobium and Beaucarnea will next compete in match 2.21, on 12 October, facing one another to determine who makes it to the third round.

Oncidium alliance orchids, as expected, beat out large columnar Euphorbia spp. (ammak, ingens, trigona, etc.) in match 1.43, but at least it was relatively close. *sigh* The score was 63 to 44.
Finally, in match 1.44, Polyscias fruticosa beat Austrocylindropuntia subulata monstrose by 64 to 38, which I personally kind of appreciate because it's hard to type Austrocylindropuntia.

Oncidium alliance orchids face Polyscias fruticosa in match 2.22, on 12 October.

Today's matches:

Match 1.57
Aeonium spp. vs. Aphelandra squarrosa (zebra plant)

Clockwise from top: Aeonium 'Kiwi,' 'Irish Bouquet,' A. arboreum atropurpureum 'Zwartkop.'

(Aphelandra squarrosa)





Match 1.58
Euphorbia milii (crown of thorns) vs. Tradescantia spathacea cvv. (moses-in-the-cradle, oyster plant)

(All Euphorbia milii cvv.)

Top row, L-R: Tradescantia spathacea, variegated T. spathacea.
Bottom row: T. spathacea, T. spathacea 'Sitara Gold,' close-up of T. spathacea flower.





Match 1.59
Tillandsia spp. (air plants) vs. Philodendron bipinnatifidum cvv. and similar spp. (xanadu, 'Hope,' 'Spicy Dog')

Left side, top to bottom: Tillandsia xerographica, T. capitata 'Peach.'
Center, top to bottom: NOID, NOID, T. ionantha 'Druid.'
Right side, top to bottom: NOID, T. abdita Mexican form.

Clockwise from top left: Philodendron bipinnatifidum ('Hope?'), P. xanadu, Philodendron bipinnatifidum ('Hope?'), P. 'Spicy Dog.'





Match 1.60
Pilea cadierei (aluminum plant) vs. Dieffenbachia cvv. (dumb cane)

(Both are Pilea cadierei.)

Clockwise from top left: Dieffenbachia 'Sterling,' 'Panther,' 'Camille' or 'Tropic Marianne' or something similar, 'Camouflage,' NOID.





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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: Paphiopedilum venustum 'Fox Catcher'

As usual: much to do, not quite enough time in which to do it. Not especially proud of this photo, but I have to go with what I've got. (The primary problem, if you care, is that I have a lot of recent photos to deal with before I can start writing posts about them, and I'm having trouble finding time to deal with the photos. Partly this is because dealing with photos is boring.)

P. venustum is from the Himalayas (East Nepal to NE Bangladesh). It's named for the goddess Venus. Some good information here.

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.53-1.56

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.

And now, the results from matches 1.37 to 1.40:

Even with the obvious handicap of having glued-on flowers, Cereus tetragonus² came very close to winning match 1.37. It didn't, losing to Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk' by a handful of votes (55 to 48), but it came really close.
Chlorophytum comosum, despite some protests, pretty easily beat Echinocactus grusonii in match 1.38, 64 to 40.

Pilea involucrata 'Norfolk' faces Chlorophytum comosum in match 2.19, which will begin October 11.

Match 1.39 was pretty close, but Kalanchoe luciae & thyrsiflora managed a win over Peperomia clusiifolia, 56 to 42.
Finally, match 1.40 was very one-sided: Echeveria cvv. stomped Nephrolepis exaltata by 87 to 20.

Kalanchoe luciae/thyrsiflora goes up against Echeveria cvv. on October 11, in match 2.20.

And now, today's new polls:

Match 1.53
Cycas revoluta (sago palm) vs. Espostoa lanata, Oreocereus trollii, & Cephalocereus senilis (old man cactus)

(Top: older Cycas revoluta. Bottom: young C. revoluta.)

(Espostoa lanata CORRECTION 1/13/14: this is actually Oreocereus trollii)





Match 1.54
Tradescantia zebrina (wandering jew) vs. Portulacaria afra (elephant bush)

(All are unidentified cvv. of Tradescantia zebrina.)

Left and center: Portulacaria afra. Right: variegated cv.





Match 1.55
Tillandsia cyanea (pink quill) vs. Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (flaming katy, kalanchoe)

(Tillandsia cyanea.)

(All are NOID Kalanchoe blossfeldiana cvv.)





Match 1.56
Self-heading Philodendrons ('Autumn,' 'Prince of Orange,' 'Moonlight') vs. Davallia and other furry-rhizomed ferns like Polypodium/Phlebodium (rabbit's-foot fern, hare's-foot fern, bear's-paw fern, kangaroo fern)

Clockwise from top left: Philodendron 'Prince of Orange,' 'Moonlight,' 'Autumn,' 'Prince of Orange,' 'Moonlight.'

Clockwise from left: Phlebodium aureum 'Mandianum,' close-up of Davallia rhizomes, Davallia fejeensis 'Major.'





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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 (Or whatever it is: it's identified as at least three different species and I'm not enough of a cactus expert to make a judgment. Calling it C. tetragonus follows the usage of CactiGuide.com.)