Episcia Leaf Coloration

 This is a leaf from an Episcia. I was hoping to see something interesting when looking at the "hair" on the leaf surface and stem but it turns out that I found something else much more interesting!

 I wanted to see what it looked like when the Episcia's leaf transitioned from one color to another color on it's surface. Nothing much to see really, but...... but when I decided to slice a little section out of the middle of the leaf and look at the "thickness of the leaf" edge-on I found something I thought was super interesting!

 You will note in the first shot above that there is a dark line running along one surface of the leaf but not on the other.

This picture shows that same line running along the top surface, even over that lump (which is the mid vein section). The pigment in the Episcia leaf seems to run along ONLY THE TOP SURFACE!

This photo sort of lacks a bit of something.... but the darker areas of the leaf have the darkest pigment line (look to the left) and the lighter middle section has a much lighter pigment. I'm going to try cutting a few more Episcia leaves open when I get a few more Episcias. I think I might just have the one with light and dark shades as you can see in the very first picture.

Comments?????

Streptocarpus 'Noreen' Project Update One

 This is my Streptocarpus 'Noreen'. I am keeping it in a dome on one of the middle shelves with the lights at least high enough to leave room for one of the high domes.

I have been so busy with December things that I haven't been paying much attention to it, I've not re-potted it or done much but fertilize when watering all the other plants. It has sent out this nice bloom though, which makes it look pretty festive. Some of the leaves have damage from bringing it home in a "none-to-gentle" manner.

This is a shot of Mike's plant. He says that it's not gotten out of it's original take-home bag but it's
"still very much alive and growing"!

Thanks so much for sending a shot of the plant.

If anyone else is taking out the camera, email me a photo of how it's going and I'll get it put up on the blog! Anyone's gone and died on them yet??

Streptocarpus Seeds.... Exposed....

Streptocarpus seeds are small. Even in the first picture they are pretty small compared to the paper clip. 












Gesneriad seeds in general are all typically very small and almost dust-like, making them hard to handle when planting.

This is what a few Streptocarpus seeds look like when magnified. Would you have guessed that the seed's surface was textured?

To plant a gesneriad seed you typically sprinkle them onto the surface of your moist (but not soggy) medium and cover them to maintain humidity. The newly emerging seedling is quite fragile and cannot stand to dry out.

 Guess what this seed is before you look down.

It's not a large seed, but by comparison you can't even fit all of it on to the screen at the same magnification. Note it's cool "end cap".

 Here it is with our friend the gesneriad seed. The mystery seed from above is one of two grass seeds and the paperclip for size comparison.

Here's a group photo. I found the tiniest sunflower seed I could get out of the packet and put it by the grass seed and the Streptocarpus seed. The sunflower seed has much more stored food and capacity to withstand varying conditions when it's sown.

Comments???

Seemannia sylvatica Up Close and Personal

Here are a couple of the flowers off of a Seemannia sylvatica plant.

Trying to get the flower cut off from the plant bumped it just enough to tear open part of the pollen sacs and spill some of the pollen.

If you look at the rim of the flower the dark dots aren't flat and simply pigment, they are

raised little structures that seem to exude a sticky substance. Does it attract insects, or help stick pollen to either itself of others?

Along with the raised structures from the photo above, there are chunks of pollen (the lighter yellow stuff) all over from when the pollen sac burst. Note how cool the 'hairs' on the flower are. They are sort of a translucent pink like the flower's petals.

Here's another look at the pollen sacs.














This is a different older flower that was cut open. A surprise was inside. There is all sorts of gray mold of some sort growing there in strands.

The raised structures similar to the first couple of photos are now withering and declining like the rest of this older flower.

The pistal has just a small amount of pollen on it.

I tried to break open another of the pollen sacs to see more of the pollen. It comes out in sort of fluffy chunks and seems to spread all over pretty easily. It's the lighter white/yellow dusty stuff on the red and yellow flower petals.

And this shot is an overall view of the flower's interior with the top parts of the petals cut away for easier viewing of the reproductive structures.

Gesneriad flowers frequently are quite fuzzy and hairy. More photos of that to come!

Comments????

Achimenes 'Golden Jubilee', Alsobia sp 'Chiapias', Kohleria and a Rhipsalis eliptica For Good Measure!

 Let's start out this with a really lovely Kohleria. These are a couple of beauties from the Janice O. collection!

Kohleria are a rhizomatous plant which is defined by "TheFreeDictionary" as rhi·zome (r z m ). n. A horizontal, usually underground stem that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes.

You will note that the flowers are wonderfully fuzzy!

 This is a rather newly found Alsobia called Alsobia sp 'Chiapas'. Ron Myhr's Gesneriad Reference Web (which is a phenomenal reference tool) says:

Plants in the genus Alsobia are considered by some botanists to belong to the genus Episcia, and this is the preference of the Smithsonian.  I have placed it in Alsobia for consistency with the rest of the site, and because this has become the typical practice.  

This particularly newly introduced species has not yet been assigned a specific name, but is similar to Alsobia punctata.  Some have referred to it as Alsobia sp. 'Chiapas', after the location where it was found, but it is best referred to by its accession number, USBRG 1994-005. 

The fimbriate lip on this species is also characteristic of some other species, like Paradrymonia ciliosa, while the frilly edges to all lobes is found in Alsobia dianthiflora.

 How about this Achimenes 'Golden Jubilee'??? Always bright, large flowers on compact and fairly upright growing foliage.

 Now this, although not a gesneriad is pretty cool too. It's a Rhipsalis elliptica. It's a member of the Cactaceae family native to Brazil.

It's just starting to come into bloom now!


Questions and comments????

A "Fungus-Among-Us"

 Dear Dr. Plant,

I'm getting these petite holes in a variety of my plants. I check for insects but don't find any. I see that the holes appear suddenly out of nowhere and seem to be on a variety of genera. If it's not an insect problem, I'm afraid to inquire if it could be a more virulent pest.

 I usually see the tell-"tail" signs in plants that are near the cooler floor, but occasionally I see the problem up much higher on the shelves. Could my frightening affliction be fungal?

Just sign me,
Pestered in MN

 Dr. Plant replies...

Dear Pestered,

I see from the additional photos you sent that you are getting large, black fungal fruiting bodies on your plant shelves.

I can see from this first photo that it's predominantly on the third shelf and it seems to be growing.

 You will note by the relaxed "tail" section of the fungal-fruit that it seems to be well established. This is usually not a good sign for the future health of your plants.

You will start seeing even more "petite holes", almost as if something is "tasting" the leaves. The damage will look a lot like Shothole Fungus with the damage going through the leaf leaving small holes approximately 1/8" to 1/4" appart.

 It is sometimes hard to spot this particular fungus in and amongst the foliage, so I suggest you get in your plant room and make a full inspection of all your shelves before it gets even more established and spreads to more areas.

Oh, your last photo is the most disturbing. When the infection seems to be in a fully spread out pattern and it's covering a number of plants I'm afraid that you have probably lost your battle and you might as well treat yourself to some chocolate and change your hobby to something easier like competeting in cat-agility competitions. 

Streptocarpus 'Heartland's White Gold'

How about this for a good looking Strep?

Jude N. sent this photo for posting on the blog of one of her streps hybridized by Dale Martens. It's one of Dale's smaller growing Streptocarpus. Dale, along with others, has been working on hybridizing Streps so that they are smaller and more compact growing. Along with the trait for size, she also tries to get plants that have a high blossom count as well. The 'Heartland's White Gold' is a very pretty plant that has very clear white flowers with a bright yellow center. Jude's plant shows how nicely the dark leaves contrast with the flowers!

Thanks to Jude for sending in the photo!

Comments???

Alsobia RM 2010-2 and Other Fun Stuff

 This is special. Here is a yet unnamed Alsobia recently collected by (I believe) Ron Myhr. The Violet Barn is selling it currently. The plant seems to be a good size grower but even a small plant has multiple blossoms.

 This bloom is about an inch long and at least half an inch wide along the tube. The opening flares out to show a really cool throat with all sorts of spots!

 This will be a popular plant I think. And with the large flowers, it might be fun to hybridize with it too.

 This was blooming in the other room. It looks like an octopus and well.... even though this is an orchid, it needed to be put in this post.

 I'm a fan of the Thumbergia battiscombei. It's like the "Blue Sky Flower" Thumbergia (which, btw, they have in the Como's new tropical display) but this one refuses to be killed by neglect, no water, plant-torture and chilly conditions. With some good culture it would really be a cool specimen.

 I found a S. 'White Sprite' blooming next to the S. pusilla. Both are alive and well, another success with micro minis.

 This thing is putting on a nice display. It probably should have the flowers more open and less curled but the multiple blooms per stem is very nice.

It's a Streptocarpus 'Versace'

 Nice color on this Jessup x self Sinningia. The purple throat is even more dramatic in person, but the petal color pretty much shows up correctly in the photo.

I just really like this photo. It's a Streptocarpus 'Silvia'. All summer long in the heat my collection almost died out. This plant, although not good looking, held on and keeps blooming. I'm hoping it stays alive so it grows into a plant for a show at some point.

If you send me an email (club members) I can post whatever you have blooming, or growing, or even perishing... you don't need to know how to use the blog if you don't want to fuss with it, just shoot me an email with a photo attachment.

Streptocarpus thompsonii, Streptocarpella saxorum varigated

Look at this cool tiny thing. It's a Streptocarpus thompsonii. It grows and looks much like a Streptocarpella. The flowers are small and mostly white. Its branching habit really doesn't look anything like the usual Strep.

The flower and buds (to the right) are small like the head of this pin.

And, coincidentally to compare the two, here is a variegated Streptocarpella saxorum. The leaves are smaller on this plant but the branching habit and flowers on a long pedicle look much like the S. thompsonii.

Peloric Streptocarpus, Sinningia bullata and Other Fun Stuff

 I'm so excited whenever this thing comes into bloom and I know I haven't killed it up good (yet).... This is a really pretty cool 6 petal, peloric Streptocarpus that I grew from a selfing of an unnamed Strep that was white with some pink throat lines. The original parent wasn't this handsome. This plant shows a much more defined 6 petal peloric pattern and a very nice bold center pattern.

 I'm not perfectly sure if the same plant throws up different flowers or if by chance two seeds just grew up together in the same pot and I've never separated it over the years. This past horribly hot summer almost saw the end of this particular plant but by some wonderful chance it's still alive. You can see that some of the other flowers have the 6 petal design, but not the symmetric markings.

 Not all that rare, but I enjoy the fact that I can get a Streptocarpella 'Concord Blue' to bloom indoors. Perhaps it finally has enough light!

 I'm going to see if I can take some pix over the course of the next few days and watch as this Aeschynanthus radicans opens it's flowers. I like the fuzzy blooms.

 My very favorite plants have some sort of weird attribute to them and this one gets my vote as fuzziest and most adorable to grow. It's a Sinningia bullata. Mine got all sprawly and lanky over the summer, but the newer brighter lights might just do this thing some good too. It's been notoriously hard to get to make babies from cuttings. It even made a small tuber from a leaf cutting but would not continue to grow.

 I might (and I emphasize might) be coming around to the charms of micro minis. This is Sinningia pusilla. It's a pretty small little plant but I guess it's cute. It grows in a terrarium and seldom gets too dry. The flowers are huge compared to the size of the plant.

 Now... here's something more worthy of admiration, in my humble opinion. It's a Eucodonia 'Adele'. This is unbelievably a cutting that is sitting in a jar of water getting roots (or not). It just keeps blooming. I've had tremendous success getting Eucodonia to root and make more plants at most any time of year. Although this rhizomatous plant probably should be dormant, mine seem to stay in growth mode for most of the year.

 Back to the Primulina tabacum flower. It gets its photo in the blog again because the flower is so cool.
Is it a chimera???

Ok, couldn't resist. It's a begonia. It's in a color that most of the gesies don't bother with and therefore had to be put in this post so that there was some of nature's best color represented. Seems begonias like fluorescent lights too.

How about comments???? Go ahead.... leave a few.... ;)