[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part IX

It's transmitted-light photo time again! This particular batch rocks much harder than usual.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Cyclamen persicum NOID. Not especially interesting, but what were you expecting? The leaves are way too thick for any interesting venation to show.

Eucharis grandiflora. Better. I can't remember now whether or not the color might have been tweaked just a little on this photo. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. They are very green.

Saxifraga stolonifera. This is the kind of discovery I make these transmitted light pictures for: I don't think I'd have ever noticed the spots on the underside of the leaves otherwise.

Aglaonema 'Golden Bay.' I wish I had room for one of these at home. I mean, not that I don't already have plenty of Aglaonemas, but this variety is particularly nice. There's just no spot for one to go, anywhere.

Spathiphyllum 'Domino.' Though this picture shows the variegation, it doesn't show the weird leaf texture so well. At first, I didn't notice the texture, and then I noticed it but didn't really think about it much, and now I notice it and think it's kind of bizarre and wonder what is going on with this plant.

Peperomia caperata NOID. The colors are weird: I can't decide if I like them or not. Focus is somewhat improved by opening the picture in its own window.

Laurus nobilis. I find it interesting that some plants, in transmitted light, look like light-colored leaves with darker veins running through, and others, like this one, look like dark-colored leaves with lighter veins. I haven't made a careful study of the matter to see whether the light-vein plants are all related or something; so far, I've just noticed.

Codiaeum variegatum 'Mrs. Iceton.' Sometimes I think crotons maybe just have too many colors. Makes 'em look all . . . busy.

Plasticum artificialis marantoides. Yeah, okay, this one shouldn't be here, technically, as it's not a real plant. I told myself it was for the sake of comparison.

Codiaeum variegatum, possibly 'Petra.' This was my header photo for a while.

Question for the hive mind: bonus ferns?

I bought a small bay tree (like, four-inch pot small) last week sometime, because the plant looked really good. Most of our bays aren't looking so hot. Nothing really wrong with them, I think, just, they're slow growers, and it was winter, and so they've just been maintaining until spring. This one was better than most, a little bigger, got started on new growth a little earlier, and so on.

I'd been thinking about getting it for a while, 'cause bays (Laurus nobilis) have a long and mostly positive relationship with people, but what pushed me over the edge was actually not the plant itself, but this:


I think they're baby ferns. We do have volunteer ferns pop up from time to time in the greenhouse, so this isn't hugely farfetched, and they look sort of like what I've been told fern prothalli (pro = first; thallus = green shoot) look like. I asked a co-worker, and she said that it was lichen. I know what lichen looks like, and this ain't no lichen. However, I'm far from certain they're fern prothalli, either. Would any of the readers happen to know?

Also, if they are ferns, what should I do with them now, if anything?


There's actually a second purpose in posting these pictures, though: I've had a question to ask for quite a while and hadn't really had the right moment to ask it. My question is about "bonus" plants. Like, if you go to buy a plant, and you see that there's something else growing in the pot too, something that clearly wasn't supposed to be there, does this make you think Awesome! A free plant!, or does it make you think Cripes, these people are too lazy to weed?

I ask because there have been occasions, like this one, where I've bought a plant not for the plant I was paying for, but for a plant that had stowed away in the same pot. This doesn't generally work out all that well, though I did get a Bryophyllum daigremontianum that way once, that I then grew for a few months, and it was okay. But when I'm going through the greenhouse, looking for stuff to do, I sometimes see this kind of thing and wonder whether or not I should pull the extras out of the pots. So I figure I can ask you guys: as customers, do the presence of "bonus plants" make you more, or less, likely to buy a plant? 'Cause, just because it works on me is no reason to think it'd work on anybody else.