Eucodonia 'Adele' Rhizome, A Closer Look

 Here is a Eucodonia rhizome. A rhizome is defined by the fine folks at Wikipedia as "characteristically a horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes."

It's one of the ways that gesneriads reproduce and one of the three types of root systems that are found in the Gesneriad family. The root types include fibrous roots, tuberous roots and our featured rhizomatous roots!

 In the first photo you saw a little thing that looks like a pine cone with a central brownish stem (to the right hand side). Sort of a cute little deal.

A closer look at the side of the 'pine cone' shows that it's made of small scales that are attached at the central brown stem and that each of the scales is simply COVERED with our now seemingly standard gesneriad hair! I was once again surprised to see that these structures had hair too!

Here two scales sit side by side. You don't notice the hairs on the flat surface because of the way the picture is taken but they show up on the edges nicely, along with some remnants of the soil that the rhizome was taken out of.

This is pretty cool. This is a closeup of that little brown central stem that the scales all attach to.... and IT HAS HAIR TOO!

I'm just so impressed that everything is coming up fuzzy.

 Here are more of the scales and because of proper lighting all the translucent hair do show up in better detail. They really do cover the surface of the scales.

And here's one more end on shot with the darkish patch the out-of-focus central stem and some of the topmost scales pictured. Each one of the scales, if detached and planted has the potential to make an entire new plant, sort of like planting a seed. Cool eh???

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Nematanthus (Goldfish Plant) Up Close and Personal

 Meet our little Nematanthus leaf. It's a pretty leaf with a smooth, glossy surface and nice thick, waxy feel, For the most part there isn't much that jumps out to make this leaf stand out in your mind as something really interesting.

But, when looking at the top surface you'll notice that it has some pock marks and you can still see the shine.

The bottom surface is where it gets a little more interesting though. The 'holes' appear to be much deeper. Normally a leaf has stomata (openings for the exchange of gases and water vapor) mostly in the lower surface. These openings should be surrounded by two guard cells that are bean shaped. I'm not sure I see this in the photo, but there are undoubtedly openings.

 When cut in section the leaf shows the wonderful layers of it's outer skin (epidermis) and the little hair on the surface called a trichome. Please note that this is one of the gesneriads that have a seemingly smooth surface and lack of the usual gesneriad fuzziness. I was so excited to find that the Nematanthus have them too!!!

The 'hair' or trichomes are useful for a number of things to benefit the plant and on the above linked page supplied by our friends at Wikipedia, some of them are listed including: "It is likely that in many cases, hairs interfere with the feeding of at least some small herbivores and, depending upon stiffness and irritability to the "palate", large herbivores as well. Hairs on plants growing in areas subject to frost keep the frost away from the living surface cells. In windy locations, hairs break-up the flow of air across the plant surface, reducing evaporation. Dense coatings of hairs reflect solar radiation, protecting the more delicate tissues underneath in hot, dry, open habitats. And in locations where much of the available moisture comes from cloud drip, hairs appear to enhance this process."

This is the leaf edge with the top surface to the right. The pigment is also primarily on the top surface as it was in the Episcia leaf a couple of posts ago. I guess that was a surprise to me.

If you look closely at the very tip and to the right, it has another of it's rather sparse 'hair' or trichomes.
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Cross Section of Chirita tamiana (Primulina tamiana)Ovary

 This is the developing seed pod from a Chirita tamiana.

 Another shot gives you the view of the sepals enclosing the pistil (the female parts collectively) of the flower. It's been pollinated and it was (till cut open) developing seeds.

Now this I think is really, really cool!
Here is that same seed pod cut open and magnified! You can see the extremely interesting spirals which hold the developing seeds. Some of the seed was disrupted when slicing the pod open but they would be laid out in order connected to the placenta.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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