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.

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

Okay. Well. That was something. I'll be spending some time in the next few days trying to decide what plants to drop from the competition (if I'm just unable to cut it down to 128, I'll add another round of competition and give most of the contestants byes for that round, until we arrive at 128 -- it's maybe not fair to the plants that have one more match than the others, but if it's the best we can do then it's the best we can do), and then at some point next week, we'll start voting.

Meanwhile, we're back to something resembling the usual posting for the next few days.

Sheba in her crate. She doesn't spend time in there much during the day, but tends to retire around 9 or 10 PM if the husband's in his office (which is where the crate lives).
Unfortunately, nothing terribly interesting happened to Sheba this week. The closest we came to interesting was, on I think Tuesday, Sheba was resting quietly on the couch with the husband as he was watching TV, then she suddenly yelped like she'd been injured. Which she'd never done that before, so this was kind of alarming to the husband and me.

It seemed to be a foot thing, because she growled when we tried to look at her feet, but after we persisted in trying for ten or fifteen minutes, she let us look and touch without growling, and her feet didn't look at all unusual. So I'm thinking maybe a foot fell asleep. That happens to dogs too, right? Or at least there's no reason I can think of why it shouldn't happen to dogs.