By the time I’d noticed this plant, it was close to blooming size, probably grown from seed on an order of plants from Ecuaflora. In person the leaves look a bit more bronze than they do here. So far it has been easy to grow and it flowered within a few months of germinating. Right now it’s about 5″ tall but looks like it could get a bit taller with more room. Advertisements
Categories: Blog, Plant Photo Library • Tags: Diastema, flower, gesneriad, hitchhiker
This Dircanopygium was a lucky replacement for another Dicranopygium I ordered from Ecuaflora, the original I don’t even remember now. It has stayed under 18″ tall, and has been tolerant of a wide range of conditions. Currently it’s growing atop a piece of wet wood, with it’s roots bundled in sphagnum and other plants. The leaf is forked about 1/3 the way up, the forked halves remaining close together for the entire leaf. The fragrance is strong, and even though […]
Categories: Blog, Plant Photo Library • Tags: dicranopygium, Ecuador, ecuaflora, fake palm, false palm, flower, fruit, gilberto, palm
This Episcia has bright green leaves that reach around 3″ at maturity. The flower is a showy white, and plants will bloom often in terrarium conditions. Like many Episcias, it grows quickly when conditions are suitable. It is native to French Guiana.
Categories: Blog, Plant Photo Library • Tags: bullate, episcia, french guiana, green, sphalera
Some shots of the R. biolat vivarium from this fall. Over the past two years I’ve probably placed close to 20 different Bryophyte species in here, and for a while they disappeared. Slowly, they have started to grow back and spread.
Categories: Blog, Terrarium • Tags: biolat, Bryophytes, Terrarium, vignette
I’ve never seen it growing along the leaf venation like this before, and wonder if more nutrients are available in these areas for their ability to hold water and sediment. It reminds me of an experiment in which oats (a favorite slime mold food) were oriented to resemble the way cities are scattered around Tokyo. The slime mold’s path to consuming the oats was refined in a matter of hours to bear a strong resemblance the Tokyo public transit system. […]
Categories: Blog, Cultivation, Terrarium • Tags: Dieffenbachia, harlingii, leaf venation, mold, oats, pink mold, slime, slime mold, tokyo
To my knowledge there were only twelve plants of this that came into the United States from Panama. It is reminiscent of the Dicranopygium from Kuna Yala. This species came in as a group of seedlings and it seems as if only one was ever sold, and a handful of others were distributed among friends. I received two of these plants, and have now had them about three years. They were more or less the same size at first. Per […]
Categories: Blog, Plant Photo Library • Tags: black, cyclanth, dicranopygium, palm, palm-like, panama, psdueo, rare
This incredible plant occurs throughout India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore. It is classified as critically endangered, but in the hobby it is a well known, only somewhat rare plant. There are two different leaf forms depending on growing conditions. When climbing, leaves are heart shaped and plastered to the growing surface. When the plant gets so large growing on a tree that it moves off the tree, the leaves become more elongated and in isolation are more […]
Categories: Blog, Plant Photo Library • Tags: Borneo, ficus, hairy, Shingler, villosa
This distinctively marked Marcgravia (no pun intended) is from Ecuador and seems to be one of the easier species to grow, and is rather quick once established. The intense white leaf venation gets more dramatic as the plant matures, with new foliage looking rather bland in comparison. The maroon stem offers a nice contrast.
Categories: Blog, Plant Photo Library • Tags: aff., Ecuador, Marcgravia, Shingler, umbellata, vein, white, white vein
Ranitomeya uakarii have have only been legally available recently through Understory Enterprises, although in the past the pressure on wild populations due to smuggling is estimated to have been low. Their range is rather large, and they have been found throughout the Amazon basin in southern and central Peru, western Brazil, Colombia, and central Guyana. They are a more terrestrial species of Ranitomeya, but will utilize vertical space in a terrarium, especially if there are tall broad leafed plants. In my […]
Categories: Blog, Frogs • Tags: gold legged, Peru, Ranitomeya, thumbnail, uakarii
