Plants 21-30

I don't think it is possible to learn everything about the natural world, but if you don't try, you won't get very far down the road! I love two things when I study a new area--like horticulture. First of all, I love learning all there is to know about how the field is conceived today. That would mean that I learn all the plants I can, but be aware of the fact that in our modern day almost every one of them has been hybridized and "varietized" many-fold. You also learn quickly that most people who work in this area are quite practical--they want to know "what works" in a garden; they often aren't interested in Latin names and derivations. But that is where the second part of my task comes in. I like to know not simply what things are called, in English and Latin, but to know why they are called what they are, and the history of how we know about them. Indeed, once you start opening the door of history, you also want to plunge into the subject of botanical knowledge at a point in time in the past, so that you get a fuller sense of what constitutes the world in which we live. Just as the Bible provided for me countless hours of joy, instruction and learning for many years (and still does, to some extent--especially when I write about it), now the flowering plants do the same. But just as there is a 4th chapter of I Chronicles or a 9th chapter of Leviticus, sometimes you find there are tons of plants that don't really catch your attention. Then, you run into one that takes your breath away and you forget all the "boring" varieties. Indeed, after a while, you may come back to those you once thought boring and discover a new world in them.

Moving to the Plants

Today I quickly run through ten more plants of my choosing from the syllabus of the Interior Plantscaping class.

1.-2. Spathiphyllum sp. 'Mauna Loa' and 'Wallisii.' These are the peace lilies, and it would be nice to know why that name has "stuck." This web site shows us some of the many varieties of the Spathiphyllum, which is now known to have about 40 species. Distinctive of this dark green-leaved beauty are a large white spathe with a white or pale yellow spadix. Sometimes the the spathes are also green. Wikipedia lists wallisii as a species and not a hybrid, variety or cultivar. It was named after the German naturalist Gustav Wallis and was discovered more than 100 years ago growing wild in Central America. 'Mauna Loa' is, indeed, a hybrid, but this web site says it is a cultivar of the wallisii. You can see how much more we need to know just to call things by their right names... And, just to think--we often also don't know how to group things in their proper families. Oh my, how vain, sometimes, are our pretensions to knowledge...The Spathiphyllum tolerates neglect well. Hm...plants and people--what is the connection?

3-5. Let's move to the Araliaceae family from the Araceae family and look at the three Schefflera that are presented (actinophylla, arboricola, and arboricola 'Gold Capella'). The actinophylla is actually a tree in its native Queensland and Java, and is known as the "Octopus" or "Queensland Umbrella" tree. Confusion arises because a "synonymn" is the Brassaia actinophylla. The word actinophylla means "ray-like leaves." Good description. Why is there a disagreement about genus name? I don't know, but I know that Jacobus Christophorus (Jakob or Jacob Christoph) Scheffler was an early 18th century physician from Danzig. The plant was characterized first in the 1770s; the word "Schefflera" apparently didn't make it into English until 1954; lots of stuff can "happen" in the intervening years. By the way, the Schefflera has seven long, almost lanceolate, leaves arranged in a circular pattern. Missing one, I think, to be an "octopus..." But here is a picture of the arboricola, with one of the leaf-clusters having eight, if I count correctly. But not all clusters have the same number. Ah, more mysteries. The 'Gold Capella' cultivar simply has green and gold leaves. Both the arboricola and the 'Gold Capella' are called 'dwarf Schefflera,' perhaps to distinguish them further from the actinophylla.

6.-10. Let's break into the Ficus genus, family Moraceae. The professor lists eight of them on the class web site; let's here look at the benjamina, the benjamina 'Variegata,' the elastica, the lyrata and the retusa. In the "wild," the elastica can grow to more than 100 feet high; which is a bit too big for an office or house plant, and so we have pleasantly domesticated it, bringing its shiny leaves down to size. It is also known as the India rubber tree. Here is what it looks like in the office. If you have one in your office do you have a sense that you are really in the wilds of India? I love the lyrata, or the "fiddle-leaf fig," because of its leaf shape. Whenever something is lyrate, I am there. Here is one of them looking kind of woebegone in an office setting. A synonymn for lyrate is pandurate. These words are useful; just wait and see how they are so in your own lives. Well, the benjamina is a weeping fig, as you can see from this picture. Also known as the "Weeping Chinese Banyan," the leaves look somewhat like a small Philodendron. Here is another picture. The 'Variegata' simply has multi-colored leaves--a green and white attractively mingled. Finally, a retuse leaf is one that is oblong or "blunt" at the end. It differs from something lyrate or pandurate in that the "fiddle-shaped" leaf also should have a sort of narrowing in the middle; the retuse leaf does not. So, here is a picture of the Ficus retusa. Lots of these ficuses have also become bonsai plants but, for the life of me, I can't see their attractivness.. Well, there are about 750 other species of Ficus; at least we have made a start...

That's enough for one more day. Let's keep at the list, and pretty soon we will have some real knowledge. And, oh, I just discovered, on the course web site, the link to the Texas A & M data base, which has great pictures of nearly 240 plants. More to learn, to be sure, just in case you were worried.

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