Next 10 Plants

As I mentioned in my previous essay, I am using the superb pictures and list in a Washington State University course, "Interior Plantscaping," to make sure I know ten more plants each day. The goal, of course, is full knowledge and understanding of flowering plants. Let's not delay.

1.-3. Three kinds of Philodendrons are on the list: Philodendron selloum, Philodendron scandens 'oxycardium,' and Philodendron hybrid. I bought the first, known as "cutleaf Philodendron" the other day, and now it proudly arches its broad, glossy, curled green leaves in my living room. It is usually now known as P. bipinnatifidum, but if the "selloum" part of it means "selliform," (saddle-shaped), I would prefer the historical name.. Something that is scandens "climbs," and so this second example does that. It is a creeping plant, though it usually creeps down because it is in a hanging plant. But the concept of scandens includes downward motion, I believe. The oxycardium part means "sharp heart"--and so the leaves, as you see, the leaves are cordate but have an especially sharp "point" to them. Never has Latin been so useful. The final exemplar, the hybrid, isn't very useful, but it is on the list.

Time would fail me to talk about the genus Philodendron. Suffice it to say that it is one of the largest in the plant world, with about 900 species, and countless cultivars, called Philodendrons. The historical evolution of the genus is interesting; it didn't emerge as a distinct one until 1830. Even today, as the Wikipedia article tells us, the genus is poorly described. I have the feeling that in ensuing years many of those currently dumped in the same Philodendron bin will go elsewhere. Just look at the various ones on this page; can you say that there is a "genetic" relationship among them all?

The "problem" with Philodendrons has, actually, led me to my first "goal" in plant identification, and that is to know well 100 families of plants with the ability to "spot" exemplars from 1000 genera. This, I believe, would give me a good start for confident identification and appreciation of the plants of our world.

4.-5. Need to be moving faster, and so I mention now two Chlorophyta: the Chlorophytum comosum and the same species with the 'Vittatum" cultivar. The latter is the "variegated" Spider Plant, which means that the fronds are not solid-colored, but have substantial runs of white throughout their length. This is also known as the Airplane Plant, probably because it looks like it is hovering in orbit. In any case, this is very common plant, of the Anthericaceae family. Now, that last mention obscures a raging debate among taxonomists. Is there really an Anthericaceae family or is it to be included within the Agavaceae? Well, in order to weigh in on this one, you have to know your species really well; and this is the first step in that knowing.

6. A Monstera deliciosa is given, which is known, confusingly, as a "split-leaf Philodendron." But it does resemble a Philodendron, and its distinctive feature is its split leaves. Another species of Monstera (obliqua) is more interesting to me. Called the "swiss cheese plant," it develops holes in the leaves but they never "break" into split leaves. Thus, it just stays as "cheese." The French botanist and surgeon Michel Adanson was the first to point out this genus, in 1763, and now one of the species of the Monstera is the adonsonii. Nice payback. No one quite knows why the genus was so named; the OED hypothesizes that it is because of the "monstrosity" or the "showiness" of the leaves of some species. Interestingly, the OED gives the name "Swiss Cheese Plant" to the deliciosa, while many web sites I perused say that the obliqua is the SCP. Where will knowledge really be found?

7.-8. There are two Epipremnum here: aureum and aureum 'Marble Queen.' The popular name is Pothos, a Sinhalese word, even though I couldn't discover that the plant comes from Ceylon/Sri Lanka. In any case, the OED says that it is a "genus" of climbing plants from the Araceae family, but this is confusing, because the examples of Pothos here are in the Epipremnum genus. The Wikipedia article says that its former genus was Pothos. How times change. Now it is characterized as a liana, which can grow as long as 20 meters. The leaves are "evergreen, alternate, heart-shaped, entire on juvenile plants, but irregularly pinnatifid on mature plants..." This web site tells us that it is also called the Scindapsus aureum. Some day I will no doubt try to sort out all of this, but not tonight.

9. The class list only gives one Anthurium, the andraeanum, pictured here. The genus has been known for nearly 200 years, and its name means "flower tail." I suppose the distinctive red heart-shaped leaf, along with the erect spadix, gives it this name (also called the "Boy Flower" for obvious reasons). It, like the Philodendron, is a huge genus of the Araceae family.

10. Let's finish today with the Alocasia that was given, the "Elephant's Ear," pictured here. I love these because of the size and shape of the leaves, with a deep groove a the top, and a cordate shape to the rest, with ridges all the way down the sides. There are only about 70 species (phew!) of this plant, with its "cordate or saggitate" leaves, and they are mostly derived from Asia and the Pacific Ocean islands. The macrorrhiza is the "Giant Taro," and possesses among the largest leaves in the plant kingdom. A very large landscape specimen, the Alocasia boa, was introduced in 2007, and its leaves are "extremely sagittate and arrow shaped.." I think we all need more skill and time to identify these properly...The variety of Alocasia seen here is astounding.

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