A Final Six Plants I'm Not Currently Mad At (Po through Z)

And now, the thrilling conclusion of the plants-I'm-not-currently-mad-at series. (A-G is here; H-Pn is here.)


1. Podocarpus macrophyllus

Podocarpus has died several times under my care already, and may again, but we're getting along for the moment. This one's my longest-lived yet. (Two and a half years!)

Date: September 2012.
Pot size: 4.5" / 11.5 cm?
The problem is always watering: let a Podocarpus get too dry, and you will have an unhappy Podocarpus. My solution to this has been to keep mine in a larger pot than I normally would (I repotted shortly after the above photo was taken, in fact), and to water every time its turn comes around in the watering cycle (i.e. every two weeks), whether it feels dry or not.¹

Date: April 2010.
Pot size: 4" / 10 cm.
Otherwise, not that big of a deal. I have a faint recollection of mealybugs or scale in the recent past, but I'm not sure if that's something that actually happened or just something I was dreading really vividly. It's been happy with artificial light so far, and has lived in the basement since its arrival, so the cooler temperature and higher humidity down there may be contributing to its non-death.

In any case, this is a plant that really shouldn't be working out for me, but it nevertheless is. At the moment. We'll see how that goes.


2. Polyscias fruticosa

As nervous as I was about buying Polyscias fruticosa, it's turned out to be a really reliable, good plant. They have a reputation for being temperamental, though this is probably more about them preferring consistency. Don't move it around a lot, and give it dependable water, and it should be fine.

Date: September 2012.
Pot size: 12" / 31 cm.
They're also surprisingly fast growers, when they feel like it. This plant has at least tripled in height in the three and a half years it's lived here. (I'm actually starting to worry that it might outgrow its spot!)

Date: May 2010?
Pot size: 6" / 15 cm.
I've had it in an east window for at least a couple years. It's been getting water every two weeks, plus a generous amount of fertilizer (year-round), but that's going to have to change, since I moved it into a larger pot a month ago. Watering will probably be more like once a month now.

It's never had any pests, and defoliated dramatically only once, this last summer. I think that was because it had gotten pretty rootbound, and was drying out too quickly, though it's also possible that the top leaves had just become so abundant that the leaves at the bottom were getting shaded out. Only the bottom leaves dropped, and not terribly many of them.


3. Rhapis excelsa

Rhapis excelsa is exactly the kind of plant I'm wanting to spotlight with these posts. I all but forget that I have it, because it never does anything terribly dramatic. It doesn't even need watering as often as most of the plants. It doesn't bloom, it grows really slowly, it holds on to its leaves, it suckers sluggishly -- there's really no reason to ever notice it. It even looks pretty much the same now as it did when I first got it:

Date: September 2012.
Pot size: 8" / 20 cm.
Date: March 2008.
Pot size: 6" / 15 cm.
At the same time, though, this is actually what a lot of people are looking for in a houseplant.² And even if it's not six times the size it used to be, there's a lot to be said for a plant that will just mind its own business and grow without getting bugs or requiring pruning or whatever.

The only complaint I have about Rhapis is that the leaf tips used to burn on me. They've stopped, since the plant got relocated to a cooler, darker spot, but it's not clear whether the change in temperature and light fixed the tip-burn problem or if it was something else entirely.³ Presently, it's in the basement, on the floor, where it gets heavily filtered light from some of the shop lights (though it doesn't have its own shop light) and some indirect sun, on the days when we have sun. I water it about every 4 or 6 weeks, and fertilize lightly year-round. I've yet to see any pests on it. I would love, love, love to propagate R. excelsa, but it grows so slowly, and propagation is so uncertain, that I haven't been willing to take the gamble yet.


4. Stapelia gigantea

S. gigantea is another plant like Plectranthus verticillatus, that's gotten smaller since I've had it; in this case, the reduction occurred because I cut off a big chunk of it for cuttings. (If I remember correctly, all the cuttings were successful. They're more wrinkled than the parent, and floppier, which is worrisome, but all are still alive, and most are now producing new growth.)

Date: September 2012.
Pot size: 6" / 15 cm.
The flowers are certainly interesting, though not necessarily the main thing I like about the plant. It scores points with me mostly for its tactile qualities, not so much its appearance (though the appearance is cool) or the flowers' smell (which is in fact unpleasant, though not as terrible as I'd been led to believe it would be). That, and it's easy to grow.

Date: September 2009.
Pot size: 6" / 15 cm.
My plant has been in a west window since I've owned it, not counting a brief period when it first arrived and I had it outside. (A bad idea: it burned.⁴) It would probably prefer a bit more light than that, but that's as good as I can do, and it seems to be able to get by on that. The cuttings are all downstairs under artificial light, which is even less bright than a west window, and they do okay, though it's worth noting that they aren't growing very fast.

The parent plant gets watered every time the watering cycle comes around, every two weeks; the cuttings get water more like every three or four weeks, but it's colder in the basement, and they aren't getting as much light, and they're in plastic pots, so that makes sense. I fertilize year-round. Sources elsewhere on the internet tell me not to let the temperature go below about 50-55F (10-13C), but neither the plant room nor the basement normally get that cold, so temperature and humidity aren't much of an issue. There have never been any pest problems; I've been watching for scale lately (because the cuttings are in that neighborhood of the basement), but so far I haven't seen any.


5. Stenocereus thurberi

Stenocereus thurberi was one of the plants I was offering for sale in the spring this year, because even though I liked the look of it, I didn't seem to have enough light to convince it to grow. Nobody was interested, though, so when I ended the plant-selling, the S. thurberi went outside, and once it was out there, it did produce some new growth.

Date: September 2012.
Pot size: 4" / 10 cm.
It's not dramatic new growth, of course. You would be forgiven for not noticing that the two pictures were different. But the top two or three areoles on each rib above is new growth as of this summer, and I've had the plant for almost three years. So it's a big deal to me.

Date: December 2009.
Pot size: 3" / 7.5 cm (along diagonal).
Other than its unreasonably high demand for light, S. thurberi has been easy enough to grow indoors: I try to keep it drier and reduce fertilizer in the winter, though I still water about every 4-6 weeks.

I suppose it's a little odd to praise a plant for not growing, but that's basically what I'm doing here: I've thrown out cacti that grew while not getting enough light,⁵ because the new growth is small, pale, and weak, and even when given better conditions afterward, plants don't necessarily fill in the spindly growth.⁶ So it's actually good if a plant refuses to grow for three years because it doesn't have enough light. Hopefully it won't keep growing this winter out of some misguided biological momentum or something.


6. Zamia furfuracea (?)

I repotted Z. furfuracea (or whatever it is⁷) in August, because it had been in the same 4-inch (10 cm) clay pot for a few years. It turned out that it did need to be repotted, but it's also lost a few leaves since then, which is something it basically never did before. It's also growing much larger new leaves now, so it's fine: the point is just that after a long period of being a good, stable plant for me, it's starting to undergo some Changes, and we don't yet know for sure how that's going to turn out.

Date: September 2012.
Pot size: 6" / 15 cm.
That said, though, I have no complaints with it so far. It's been fine close to an east window. It used to get watered every two weeks; I think so far I've continued to do that, post-repotting, but it may slow down to every four weeks in the winter, depending on how quickly it seems to be drying out. Neither temperature nor humidity are likely to be an issue to someone growing it indoors, and I've never had pest problems on mine.⁸

Date: October 2009.
Pot size: 4" / 10 cm.

Also relatively non-upsetting:

Sansevieria cylindrica
Sansevieria hargesiana
Scindapsus pictus
Selenicereus chrysocardium
Stenocereus pruinosus
Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar'
Tradescantia spathacea
Vriesea imperialis

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¹ Is it possible to overwater a Podocarpus? Probably. I have one houseplant book that says they're prone to root rot if they're kept too wet or left to stand in water. It's not something I've ever seen personally, though.
² My recollection, from the garden center days, is that the houseplant every customer is looking for:
• has large, shiny, mostly-green leaves, with optional variegation,
• needs almost no light at all,
• produces huge flowers, year-round, in any shade of any color desired,
• is pleasantly- but not overpoweringly-scented,
• never needs fertilizer or repotting,
• is nontoxic to pets and children,
• and will grow to the height of exactly six feet (1.8 m) tall and then stop getting taller.
It takes a few months, but one does eventually get used to disappointing the customers.
³ The old spot was also in the basement, so things like temperature and humidity should have been more or less the same; the main difference between the two situations is that the first location had a shop light directly over the plant. I'm also fertilizing more now, but it would be weird if that was responsible: ordinarily if there's a tip-burn problem on a plant, more fertilizer will make it worse, not better.
⁴ They can, of course, grow outside in the sun: I just didn't try as hard as I could have to acclimate it gradually. It had most likely been growing inside on someone's windowsill before they brought it to the consignment store, so it would have been accustomed to lower light.
⁵ Specifically: Parodia microsperma and Echinocactus grusonii.
⁶ Some do, some don't: I have some mildly etiolated Myrtillocactus geometrizans that grew some weak new growth after arriving here, but they spent the summer outside this year and managed to fill in somewhat. They still don't look quite right: the newest growth is disproportionately big compared to the growth that immediately preceded it --

-- but the stems also thickened up a little bit, enough so that I'm optimistic that the plants will even themselves out eventually.
⁷ I'm positive that it's a Zamia; I just don't know which one.
⁸ I know they can get scale, though: when I worked at the garden center, we threw out a batch of Zamias (not necessarily the same species as mine) because they developed a bad scale infestation. Which was depressing: up to that point, I had been considering buying one of them for myself.

List: Houseplants Native to China

Most of the caveats from this post also apply here: don't use this list for situations in which getting a plant's native range wrong might result in someone's death, I'm mostly relying on GRIN for my information, native ranges aren't always known with any kind of certainty so even the best available information may not be correct, and so forth.

For this one, we're talking about China. There will be a lot of overlap between this list and the ones for Eastern Asia (including Japan), India, Indo-China, Malesia, and Australia, just because China's sort of right in the middle of all those and plants respect political boundaries even less than people do. I apologize for being unable to find a clear public-domain map of the area; I looked for a long time, and found all kinds of stuff, none of it quite what I wanted. Instead, I have to do two different maps, one for the actual political divisions of China itself:


And the other to show where China is relative to the other countries I'll be mentioning (particularly note the locations of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Burma, as there will be a test later¹):

I've circled the Ryukyu Islands because 1) they're going to come up a lot and 2) the original map didn't have them labeled.
Obviously not everybody's going to care about specifically where in the country the different plants come from, but I'm trying to provide the best information I've got for those people who do, 'cause that's the kind of guy I am.


Aglaonema cvv. (shown: cv. 'Emerald Bay') (Chinese evergreen) are usually man-made hybrids, or sports, or sports of hybrids, and consequently don't "really" come from anywhere, but a lot of the species which provided the raw material for the hybrids are from Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam) and Malesia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines), with a few as far north as China and as far west as India.


On-line sources disagree about the origin of Aspidistra elatior (cast-iron plant), with some saying it's from Japan and naturalized in China and others saying it's from China and naturalized in Japan. Either way, it's in the right neighborhood for what we're talking about, and GRIN says China but not Japan, so we're going to go with that until I have good reason to change it.


Chirita cvv.² are from within the general India-China-Indonesia triangle; a lot of the plants out there are man-made hybrids (like 'Deco,' shown), but a substantial chunk of the species are from southern China.


Cycas revoluta (sago palm) is from the Fujian province,³ along the southeast coast of China, as well as the Kyushu and Ryukyu Islands in southwestern Japan.


Eriobotrya japonica (loquat) is from the Hubei and Sichuan provinces of China, as well as Taiwan and the Japanese islands of Honshu (the main island of Japan), Kyushu (SW of Honshu), and Shikoku (east of Kyushu and south of Honshu).


Ficus pumila (creeping fig) is found in southeast China.


Pilea peperomioides (Chinese money plant, Chinese missionary plant) is from the Yunnan province of China, which is in the southwest corner of southern China (it borders Burma⁴).


Rhapis excelsa (lady palm) is from southern China and Japan.


The range of Saxifraga stolonifera (strawberry begonia) largely overlaps with that of Ficus pumila, but also extends to Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.


Selaginella uncinata (peacock spikemoss, blue spikemoss) is from southern China.

For the recommends:

I love Aglaonemas; I don't do well with the rhizomatous types like A. brevispatha, but all the upright cane-type ags and I get along famously.

Rhapis excelsa tolerates me. I'm not sure if we actually like one another, but it's put up with a lot of crap from me and is still alive and growing.

Saxifraga stolonifera and I are going through an extended rough patch at the moment, but mostly we've gotten along; I suspect that our problems were mostly my fault, not the plant's. We'll see if I can turn that around. Either way, the plant was good enough, for long enough, that I don't have a problem recommending it, even if mine aren't so great at the moment.

The anti-recommend is tough, because I've had bad experiences with the Cycas, Pilea, and Selaginella. Cycas revoluta seems to do well for most people, though (I think my problem was possibly fertilizer-related), so I won't choose it. The Pilea was never happy with me, and even though it lived here for fourteen months, it was declining slowly the entire time. I don't know what happened. I wouldn't recommend it to other people, but it's probably still not as bad as Selaginella, which I don't recommend to anyone who doesn't have an enclosed container of some kind to keep it in, because they're very serious about their moisture levels. Also, I believe I've managed to kill this particular Selaginella despite having an enclosed container for it, which just goes to show you how awesome I am at killing things.

Not pictured:

• Aeschynanthus longicaulis is native to the Yunnan province of China, as well as Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
• Alocasia spp. (elephant ears) in general are from Indo-China (Laos, Thailand, Vietnam) and Malesia (Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Philippines), but some ranges extend as far north as southern China (Yunnan and Guangdong provinces).
• Alpinia zerumbet (torch ginger) has a fairly wide range, from Japan westward into northeast India and south through Indo-China and Malaysia, which includes the southern provinces of China.
• Ardisia crenata (coral berry) has a pretty substantial range in southeast China, but it's all over the place (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia).
• The GRIN-official range of Asplenium antiquum (bird's-nest fern) is odd and patchy, and sort of runs along the boundary between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. Beginning at Hong Kong, the range goes northeast through Taiwan and Japan into South Korea. I have no idea why A. antiquum has never been able to make a go of things on the mainland, but this may explain why they always turn on me when I try to grow them here in landlocked Iowa.
• Aucuba japonica (spotted laurel, Japanese laurel, gold-dust plant) is, as the botanical name suggests, primarily from Japan, though there are also some in the Zhejiang province on China's east coast.
• Weirdly, Carmona sp. ("fukien tea") is not from China's Fujian province, at least not according to GRIN, but it is found in the southern part of Guangdong (about as far southeast as one can go in China) and Hainan (as far south as you can go in China). I wonder who fucked that one up. It's also found in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, Taiwan, west to India and Sri Lanka, south as far as Queensland (Australia), and through Indonesia and Malaysia into the Philippines.
• Cissus discolor (begonia vine) is naturally found in south central China, in the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, as well as from India eastward to the Philippines.
• Colocasia spp. (elephant ears) are from south and southeast China, south through Laos and Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. C. esculentum specifically has been so widely cultivated that we don't know where it came from, though it's a pretty safe bet that it originated somewhere in that general area too.
• Cymbidium cvv. are largely hybrids, made by aliens from the seventh moon of the planet Zecuponia III and introduced to earth via an underground network of florists and hobbyists who are actually disguised aliens, secretly observing humanity in anticipation of the day when they can destroy all humans. Why they need to observe first, I have no idea -- apparently they think there's something about us that isn't obvious on the surface.⁵
• GRIN was unusually non-specific about the distribution of Cyrtomium falcatum (holly fern); it looks like it's basically the southeast coast of China, north to Japan and south to Vietnam, plus a population all by itself off in India somewhere.
• Various species of Davallia (rabbit's-foot fern) occur in different spots all over the world; at least one makes its home in southeast China, though I don't know which species.
• Dendrobiums are mostly man-made hybrids at this point, though some species specimens are out there to be had if that's what gets you excited. If you're looking in China, check the south and southeast provinces (Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, and all that); otherwise you can find hot Dendrobium action from south China all the way to northern Australia, from India to the Philippines.
• Dioscorea bulbifera (air potato) is another one with a native range that's just a mess: you start in west Africa with Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Liberia, and all those along that edge there, including landlocked Burkina Faso, to where the coastline begins to curve to the south at Cameroon and Nigeria, then stop. Go to the east side of Africa and pick up Tanzania, Uganda, and Madagascar, as well as Mauritius and Reunion Island, to the east of Madagascar. Then pick up again at Sri Lanka, just off the southern tip of India, north and east through India, Bhutan, and Nepal, and from there it's all the usual places: south and east China, all of Indo-China, Malesia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines), south into north and west Australia. I don't know if it's safe to assume that there might be other spots that GRIN doesn't mention, that fill in the gaps in the range (like maybe central Africa, if nothing else), or if it really has a bunch of isolated populations like this.
• Of course some Drosera spp. (sundews) are from China; Droseras are basically everywhere. Seriously. I'm not even going to try.
• I'm not going to try to describe the natural range of Ensete and Musa spp. (banana) either. There are both Ensete and Musa species native to China, some as far north as Tibet (Xizang) but mostly in the same southern and eastern part of China that everything else is from.
• Ficus benjamina (weeping fig, ficus tree) has a large range stretching from northeast Australia all the way north to south and east China, west to India, east to the Solomon Islands, and covering everything in between (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Indo-China, etc.).
• Ficus microcarpa (Cuban laurel) has basically the same range as F. benjamina, though it extends a bit further north (to the Ryukyu Islands of Japan) and a bit further to the southeast (Palau, New Caledonia, etc.)
• Gardenia jasminoides (gardenia) is native to the eastern edge of Southeast Asia. From north to south: Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam.
• Gloriosa superba (glory lily, gloriosa lily) is another species that splits its time between Africa and Southeast Asia. It only just barely qualifies for this list; GRIN says it's native to a bit of southern Yunnan province (which is in southwest China). Most of its Asian range is south and west of that, though: south through Indo-China and Indonesia, west until you hit India. The African part of the range covers most everything down the east side of Africa (Ethiopia / Somalia / Sudan, Uganda / Kenya / Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, and a little ways up the east side, as far as Namibia). There's also supposed to be a little population all by itself in Senegal, which is as far to the west as you can go and still be on the African continent; I sort of wonder if the Senegalese bit is an error on someone's part.
• Hoya carnosa is native to southern China, as well as Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and Kyushu (Japan), India, Vietnam and Malaysia. I don't know if the Indian population is actually separate or if part of the range was left out.
• A few other Hoya species claimed to be native to China: Hoya chinghungensis, Hoya dasyantha, Hoya fungii, Hoya globulosa, Hoya griffithii, Hoya juangoiana, Hoya lii, Hoya lyi, Hoya manipurensis, Hoya mengtzeensis, Hoya motoskei, Hoya multiflora,⁶
Hoya ovalifolia, Hoya pandurata, Hoya picta, Hoya pottsii, Hoya salweenica. I didn't dig into the details on most of these, but they were on the list; check 'em out yourself if you're interested.⁷
• Jasminum officinale is a welcome change of pace -- it's actually from western China (Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang/Tibet, Yunnan) and its range extends to the west from there (east to west, in order: Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Georgia, Turkey).
• Jasminum polyanthum is strictly Chinese, from the south/central provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, and Yunnan. I'm appreciating that one, too, 'cause it's easier to type out. You're totally bored with this by now, right?⁸
• Lemmaphyllum microphyllum is an oddball epiphytic fern; GRIN didn't have a listing for it, but other sources suggest a range from Korea south through Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines, either stretching west into India or with a separate population in India: I never know if my sources are just being lazy with this sort of thing or if there are actually isolated populations of plants all over the place.
• Liriope spicata (lilyturf, monkeygrass) is another down-the-coaster: Japan, Taiwan, most of China, south into Vietnam.
• Livistona chinensis (Chinese fan palm) is also a down-the-coaster: Japan, Taiwan, south China.
• Ludisia discolor (jewel orchid) comes from the southern coast of China, south through Indo-China (Burma, Thailand, Vietnam), Indonesia, and Malaysia.
• Murraya paniculata (orange jasmine, orange jessamine) can be found naturally in the southern couple rows of provinces of China, east to Taiwan and the Philippines, west to India and Sri Lanka, south as far as the north coast of Australia, and some of the western and southwestern Pacific islands. Plus, obviously, all points in between (Indo-China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and so forth).
• Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) is from China and Japan; I don't know what parts of China specifically, but with Japan, it's the three southern large islands (Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku).
• Neofinetia spp. weren't in GRIN, but another source puts them in east Asia, specifically Korea, Japan, and China.
• I don't know if anybody tries to grow Nephrolepis hirsutula (scaly sword fern) indoors or not, but GRIN says Guangdong, China is part of the natural range, along with Thailand, Malaysia, and the north coast of Australia.
• I've gotten the general impression that Nerium oleander (oleander) is primarily a Mediterranean and west Asian species, but GRIN puts its native range along an east-west line that stretches from Morocco, in northwest Africa, through north Africa, the Middle East, and India, with a bit in Yunnan province of southwest China.
• GRIN claims Origanum spp. (oregano) are native throughout Europe, south and east into Turkey, Iran, and Georgia, and then small areas of India and China (specifically the provinces of Sichuan, Xizang/Tibet, and Yunnan, all in southwest China). Whether this refers to a fragmented range, multiple species, or inadequate data is unclear.
• Osmanthus fragrans (fragrant olive, sweet olive) is at home from northeast India, Nepal, and Bhutan east into northern parts of Burma/Myanmar and north Thailand, and southwest China. GRIN also lists the southern part of the island of Kyushu, in Japan, but that's a long way from the rest of the plant's range, so I'm not sure what to do with that.
• Paphiopedilum cvv. (slipper orchids) are mainly found in Indo-China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, but some species are found as far north as southern China.
• Pellionia repens (watermelon begonia) is native to Indo-China, west to India, east to the Philippines, south to Indonesia, and north to Yunnan and Hainan provinces in south/southwest China.
• Perilla frutescens (beefsteak plant, shiso) may or may not qualify as a houseplant; it sort of seems like it ought to be possible, but I haven't heard of anyone ever actually growing it indoors. It's found in much of southern and coastal China, though, as well as throughout Indo-China, Taiwan, much of Japan and Korea, northern India, Bhutan, Nepal, as far west as Pakistan.
• The range of Phaius tankervillae (nun orchid) is bounded by southern China and Taiwan on the north, northeast India on the northwest, Sri Lanka on the west, northern Australia on the south, and the southwestern Pacific islands on the southeast, as well as most of Malesia and Indo-China.
• Phoenix roebelenii (pigmy date palm) has a fairly small native habitat, limited to north Laos, northwest Vietnam, and the Chinese province of Yunnan, in southwest China.
• Phyllostachys spp. (bamboo) are all found in China; their suitability as houseplants is questionable, but people do attempt it.
• As I understand things, the natural range of Pilea cadierei (aluminum plant) is even more in question than that of most domesticated plants, because nobody's seen it in the wild for quite a while, but it's believed to have originated in Vietnam, and GRIN says there are some in southwest China (Yunnan and Guizhou) as well.
• I'd warn you not to try Pogonatherum paniceum (house bamboo) indoors, whatever common name marketers are trying to put on it, but Tropicos appears to be claiming⁹ that the natural range extends from Pakistan in the west all the way through India, Indo-China and China, south into Malaysia and Indonesia.
• Polypodium formosana (=Polypodium formosanum) (caterpillar fern, naked rabbit's foot fern) is from China, Japan, and Taiwan, according to Tropicos. ("Formosa" is the Portuguese word for Taiwan.)
• Polyscias fruticosa cvv. (ming aralia) has the whole India / China / Indo-China / Malesia thing going on, plus Fiji in the southeast.
• Pteris cretica (cretan brake fern) is from everywhere, according to GRIN: most of equatorial Africa, south Africa, and Madagascar (plus Algeria, for some reason), western and southern Europe, Turkey, Yemen, northern India, Indo-China, China and Japan. Plus an incongruous bit in Guatemala and southern Mexico, which I'm thinking is maybe a mistake.
• Pteris vittata (chinese brake fern, ladder brake fern) is similar to P. cretica, though without Europe or the Mexico/Guatemala bit. P. vittata is also supposed to be present in the wild in three different Australian states, none of which share borders: Queensland (NE Australia), Western Australia (west), and Victoria (SE Australia). I don't know what's going on there.
• Radermachera sinica (China doll) is native to southern China, Taiwan, and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, which most sources agree on, plus GRIN adds Vietnam, Burma/Myanmar, and a teeny bit of northeast India.
• Schefflera arboricola (umbrella tree) is from two islands in the South China Sea: Taiwan and Hainan. I expected more, but that's all GRIN said.
• Solenostemon scutellarioides (=Plectranthus scutellarioides, Coleus blumei, coleus): India, China (the SE corner -- Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi), Indo-China, the Philippines, and then all points south of that line until you hit the north coast of Australia, more or less.
• The natural range of Tacca chantrieri (bat plant) runs from India and Sri Lanka in the west, to pretty much all of Indo-China, plus Malaysia just to the south of Indo-China and most of southern China.
• (We're almost done!)
• The natural range of Trachelospermum jasminoides (confederate jasmine, star jasmine) pretty much includes everything that touches either the South China Sea or the East China Sea, with two exceptions: Korea, Japan, China, and Vietnam, but not the Philippines or Taiwan. At least, not according to GRIN.
• GRIN says Trachycarpus fortunei (windmill palm, Chinese windmill palm) is found throughout central and eastern China, as well as some of northern Burma/Myanmar.
• Southwest China (Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan) is at the northeast tip of the range for Trevesia palmata (snowflake aralia, snowflake plant), which is primarily an Indo-Chinese (Cambodia, Laos, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) species. A little bit of northeast India and neighboring countries (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh) are included in the range too.
• Vandas are mostly man-made hybrids these days, but some species occur in Yunnan province, in southwest China. The rest of them are spread throughout a India / Philippines / Indonesia triangle.

Borderline cases:

• Citrus, Citrofortunella, and Fortunella spp. (citrus, orange, kumquat, lime, lemon) are thought to have originated somewhere in the general China / Indo-China / India area, but nobody's really sure, because they've been so widely cultivated.
• Farfugium japonicum 'Crested Leopard' may or may not count as a houseplant. (I've heard of it being done, but never actually seen it or attempted it, so I don't know how well that works out for anybody.) It is, nevertheless, native to Japan, north to Korea, south to Taiwan, and in southeast and central China.
• Hemionitis arifolia (heart fern) isn't included in GRIN, but Exotic Rainforest says "primarily from Laos, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and possibly China, Taiwan and other nations in tropical Southeast Asia." So maybe it belongs on the list, and maybe it don't.
• Hoya kerrii is possibly native to China: one source said China, Japan, and Thailand; another said Thailand and the Philippines.
• Hoya lacunosa cvv. is possibly from south China, according to Google; it's more definitely present in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
• Microsorum steerii (oil fern) and M. thaliandicum aren't in GRIN, but both are claimed to be present in southern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. M. thailandicum is also, as one might expect, found in Thailand.
• Nepenthes spp. (pitcher plants) are mainly from warmer climates to the south of China, but at least one, N. mirabilis, can be found in Guangdong and Hainan, in south China, as well as south through Indo-China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Queensland in northeast Australia, and a few Pacific islands (Micronesia, Palau). I don't know if N. mirabilis is one of the species people try to grow indoors or not.
• Phalaenopsis cvv. (moth orchid) are mostly hybrids, as far as what's available to grow as a houseplant. A few species are supposed to live in parts of China (particularly the large southern island of Hainan), like P. hainanensis (Hainan and Yunnan), P. braceana (Yunnan), P. deliciosa ssp. hookeriana and P. mannii (eastern Himalayas to SW China), and a handful of others, but it's not clear how widespread any of these are in cultivation, and my main source for this is Wikipedia, making it even more doubtful.

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Image credits:
SE Asia map: Cropped version of a map from the UT-Austin Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, with the addition of a label for the Ryukyu Islands
China map: Wikimedia Commons

¹ Being a product of the U.S. educational system, I was embarrassingly ignorant of a lot of this region before I started working on this post. I'm a little clearer on southeast Asia now, plus I can name, spell, and indicate the approximate location of three and a half Chinese provinces (Fujian, Hainan, Yunnan and sometimes Guangdong), which I couldn't do before.
² The genus is in the process of being taxonomically reorganized, so I'm not sure whether this will be true in the future, or for how long. Try as I might, I can't actually keep up with all of the taxonomic stuff that's going on lately.
³ Fujian is also sometimes rendered "Fukien" when spoken by English-speakers, hence "fukien tea" (Carmona sp.)
⁴ Which is also called Myanmar; whichever name you use for the country will inevitably offend someone, and I, not having any idea about the issue(s) involved and very little motivation to put in the research at the moment, have no idea whose side I'm on. Wikiposedly the U.S. government prefers "Burma," so I'm going with Burma.
⁵ Just checking to see if you're reading this, and incidentally amusing myself a bit -- this gets kind of tedious to type out. Plus I keep having to look at maps. Cymbidiums in fact are mostly man-made hybrids, but the original species are found inside of an India-Korea-New-Guinea triangle, including parts of China but apparently excluding the Philippines.
⁶ Questionable -- the source for this had it as part of a list of Chinese natives but didn't include China on the more specific page for the plant, so I don't know.
⁷ There's also a good chance that some of those names are synonyms for other names on the list.
⁸ Well, suck it up, 'cause we're only up to the letter J.
⁹ (Tropicos and I have some problems with one another.)

Rumble Among the Jungle, Matches 1.33-1.36

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 1.17 to 1.20:

In match 1.17, Senecio rowleyanus and S. radicans got off to a strong start, but were soon overtaken by Phalaenopsis/Doritaenopsis cvv., ultimately losing by a score of 46 to 67.
Match 1.18, on the other hand, was about as unambiguous as it's possible for a match to be, with Monstera deliciosa clobbering Musa/Ensete cvv. 88 to 19. I'm a little puzzled about this, but hey, I voted for Monstera too, so.

Phalaenopsis and Monstera will face one another in match 2.9, on October 9.

By contrast with 1.18, match 1.19 has been a seesaw since it began, with Sansevieria cylindrica taking an early lead over Mammillaria spp., then falling behind, then regaining. In the end, Sansevieria managed a mere three-vote victory, 55 to 52, the closest margin so far.
Araucaria heterophylla's victory over Chamaedorea elegans in match 1.20 was never in doubt, though. Its votes have outnumbered Chamaedorea's by about a 2-to-1 margin since the poll opened, and it's won with more or less the same proportions, 69 to 40.

Sansevieria cylindrica and Araucaria heterophylla will also square off on October 9, in match 2.10.

And now the new matches for the day.

Match 1.33
Dionaea muscipula (venus flytrap) vs. Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley'

(Both Dionaea muscipula.)

(Both Pilea mollis 'Moon Valley.')





Match 1.34
Ardisia crenata (coral berry) vs. Aeschynanthus spp. (lipstick plant, goldfish plant)

(All are Ardisia crenata.)

Clockwise from top: Aeschynanthus lobbianus or A. radicans, A. longicaulis, A. speciosus.





Match 1.35
Aechmea fasciata (silver vase plant) vs. Rhapis excelsa (lady palm)

Top left: Aechmea fasciata emerging inflorescence. Others: non-blooming plants.

(Both Rhapis excelsa.)





Match 1.36
Coffea arabica (coffee plant) vs. Spathiphyllum cvv. (peace lily)

Coffea arabica, same plant when about 1-2 years old (L) and 4-5 years old (R).

Center and left top: Spathiphyllum NOID, possibly 'Golden Glow.' Bottom left: NOID, possibly 'Domino.' Top right: NOID, possibly 'Sensation' or 'Mauna Loa.' Bottom right: 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?

List: Houseplants That Get Tall But Stay Narrow

A very long time ago, someone at Garden Web asked for suggestions for a tall, narrow plant that would stay narrow, rather than spreading out and becoming vase-shaped with time. The reason was because the person had a fairly limited amount of floor space, and wanted the plant in an entryway, so any plants that got wide would eventually take up too much space and no longer be usable in that spot. I provided a number of suggestions in the thread, which for some reason has become a really reliable source of blog hits ever since. Which is kind of weird. I mean, I wouldn't have thought that many people have this problem.

So anyway. Here's a slightly expanded list of more or less upright, narrow, columnar plants that can be kept indoors. They're not all interchangeable -- you'd still need to be able to provide the right conditions as far as light, temperature, etc. And some of them do actually get a little wider with age. But the list below is at least a place to start, when looking for plants that will become tall but not take up a lot of floor space.

Suggestions are welcome, if readers can think of any other plants that fit the category.

Beaucarnea recurvata.

Chamaedorea metallica.

Cordyline glauca, unless cut back.

Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig' (shown) and other D. deremensis varieties, unless cut back.

Euphorbia trigona.

Pachypodium lamerei (shown), P. geayi, and other spp., at least for quite a while when younger.

Pilosocereus pachycladus.

Rhapis excelsa.

Sansevieria trifasciata 'Moonglow' (shown), as well as some other S. trifasciata cvv.

Schefflera actinophylla, unless cut back. Some cvv., e.g. 'Renegade,' have more of a tendency to stay columnar than others.
Of these, my favorite three are probably Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig,' Euphorbia trigona, and Pachypodium lamerei.

Dracaena will generally be quite a bit wider than its pot, but it will tend to maintain that width for its entire life, getting maybe a little bit wider at the top with age. If cut back, they will resprout from multiple spots on the stem, making the plant a bit wider, but this takes a very long time to happen and isn't likely to be that big of a deal. They're very tolerant of low light, dry air, and other indoor conditions, but need occasional flushing of the soil with water, because they're somewhat mineral sensitive. They're also easily overwatered, so be sure to only water when the soil is very dry, and when you do water, water thoroughly. Too large of a pot can also cause them problems.

Euphorbia trigona is probably my favorite of the three: it needs very bright light and is easily overwatered, but it is otherwise very easy. As plants age, they will grow new shoots at the stems' corners, which will grow up as well, forming a tall narrow column of stems which is widest in the middle. They will generally need only as much floor space as the pot they're in. The sap is toxic, and may be dangerous to children or pets.

Pachypodium lamerei is of about average difficulty. Like the other two, it's easily overwatered, especially if injured. It needs very bright light and may go dormant during the winter, dropping its leaves and slowing water consumption (this isn't inevitable; my personal plant has never gone completely dormant, as far as I can tell, in the three winters I've had it). It's also more prone to spider mites than the other two, especially during the winter. Very old plants, or plants in very ideal conditions, will branch at the top, though this is not common in plants grown indoors year-round. Pachypodium is also both poisonous and covered in sharp, potentially harmful, spines.

I don't recommend against any of these plants especially, though I personally do poorly with Sansevieria trifasciata and don't intend to buy any more of them for that reason. I think most people have more trouble with Rhapis excelsa.

Not pictured:

Browningia hertlingiana
Carnegiea gigantea
Cereus peruvianus
Cordyline fruticosa, unless cut back
Dizygotheca elegantissima, unless cut back
Dracaena fragrans 'Massangeana,' unless cut back
Dracaena marginata, some specimens, unless cut back
Dracaena reflexa 'Anita,' unless cut back
Dracaena reflexa 'Riki,' unless cut back -- is pretty wide to begin with, but doesn't get a lot wider
Dracaena sanderiana
Euphorbia ammak, kinda (they will eventually branch on their own)
Euphorbia drupifera, kinda (they tend to lean with age, has been my experience)
Euphorbia grandicornis, more or less
Isolatocereus dumortieri
Myrtillocactus geometrizans
Pachycereus marginatus
Polyscias balfouriana
Polyscias fruticosa
Schefflera arboricola, some specimens, unless cut back
Stenocereus pruinosus
Stenocereus thurberi
Yucca guatemalensis, unless cut back

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

Went out to the house again yesterday, because I had the day off. I was going to try to get some stuff planted, finally, but ran into technical difficulties (among other things, I needed, like, 100 more feet of garden hose than what I had), so now the Lysimachia is wondering how come it got to ride around in the car all day. Possibly I should forget actually planting anything and go directly to container gardening. Maybe I should find out what's been planted here already before I start adding stuff all over the place. Already some Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley) have popped up since I was there last. And there was another surprise:

Thamnophis radix, the plains garter snake.
This struck me as a good sign. I like snakes. And this one was big and healthy-looking. Not much of a conversationalist. Robust, though.

Anyway. All of this is to explain why I'm resorting to the transmitted light pictures for today's post.

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

Rhapis excelsa. I had not previously noted the little sideways (vertical in this photo) lines. They're perfectly visible to the naked eye, of course. I'd just never paid attention.

Tetrastigma voinierianum. The dark specks are natural, not bugs or dirt, but they also brush off. I'm a little confused about their origin and purpose.

Ficus benjamina 'Black Diamond.' I still like this variety of Ficus benjamina, but it's less certain about me.

Cordyline glauca. It's not always noticeable, but new Cordyline glauca leaves, if the plant is growing in strong light, will come in purple first and then turn green later. Which is kind of cool.

Coffea arabica. I know that the plant in this picture did have some chlorotic leaves (it was a casualty of the 'Skunky' purge), though I can't recall whether this was one of them. Hard to tell from just the one picture, though it seems like whether or not it's chlorosis, something must be wrong.

Dracaena deremensis 'Lemon-Lime.' This was an incredibly, bafflingly hard picture to get. I literally tried for months, under various lighting conditions, and invariably the picture would come out blurry. It was weird.

Aglaonema 'Maria.' Turn it sideways and pretend it's a Rorschach blot. What do you see?

Dracaena marginata 'Colorama.' Also a very difficult picture to get, and not necessarily worth getting. But there it is anyway.

Dieffenbachia 'Panther.' Probably my favorite from this batch.

Codiaeum variegatum NOID. I hadn't realized until the day I took this picture that Codiaeum variegatum leaves have multiple layers of pigment. I was looking at a nice yellow 'Mrs. Iceton' leaf and thinking about photographing it, and then I turned the leaf over and it was actually red underneath. In retrospect, this is perfectly obvious, but at the time, I was surprised that croton leaves aren't necessarily the same color all the way through the leaf.