posted
We got our houseplant, Bob, from my father-in-law who worked in Agriculture who got it from a colleague and neither of them knew what it was. We gave some leaves and seeds to a friend who had a botany student friend check it out and he determined it was "a generic tropical plant" but I thought someone here might have seen one like it before.
He's in this picture here from about two years ago and one I took today. He's getting a bit thin since he loses most of his leaves in the winter. He was about 8 inches high from soil to tip when we got him sometime in 2001. He's now 31 inches high and has a branch (Bob Jr.) and occasionally develops little pods that fire off seeds (once a seed hit Michael who was sitting 5 feet away). The root system is extremely small and shallow.
Any ideas?
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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It looks like Rubber tree (er, rubber tree plant?). I had one, but it didn't get very big because I kill green things by being in the same room with them. My husband, who lived with a green-thumb mom says it looked like a plant they had when he was a kid (MIL told him it was a rubber tree).
-------------------- "Is it ME? Am I a MAGNET for these idiots?"~Pearl Forrester MST3K Die-Hard Engineers, Big Red One my Dad's website "Must be a 'snopes' thing..." ~my entire family when I try to explain something. Posts: 4524 | From: South of Madison, Wisconsin | Registered: May 2005
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I can definitively say that it's not a maple tree.
-------------------- In politics, absurdity is not a handicap - Napoleon Bonaparte Posts: 1801 | From: The Forest City, Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005
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I find the idea of a "generic tropical plant" humorous. The tropics have the greatest diversity of plant and animal life on earth!
However, I don't recognize yours.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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This is the closest I've gotten, so far, to the leaf, but I haven't seen the trunk on this plant, which is a plumeria. I don't think Bob is a plumeria, but the leaf of this one is similar to Bob,
-------------------- Explore, enjoy and protect the planet --- AAMAH Posts: 8532 | From: Michigan | Registered: Mar 2000
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The leaf is also similar to a schefflera. There are many different kinds of schefflera, so the fact that I've never seen a trunk like that probably doesn't mean anything. I've seen them as tall as a two-story building in Florida, but I've also had several as house plants. Alas, I killed them.
Cervus, I heard that schefflera was put on some kind of a "do not plant" list in Florida. Is that true?
-------------------- "This air we're breathing. Oxygen, isn't it?"~I’mNotDedalus, impersonating Vincent D’Onofrio.|"Sometimes trying to communicate can be like walking through a minefield."~wanderwoman "Give people a break. It's not easy doing a life."~Joshua Halberstam Posts: 4020 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Nov 2005
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Hmm, tell us about that stem. It appears square (or squarish) and has pronounced nodes, like bamboo. (Not that bamboo has angular stems, just that it has pronounced nodes.) So, does the stem have "sides"? And can you describe the plant's flowers? Or are they pretty inconspicuous? When does this thing bloom?
-- Bonnie
-------------------- Se non è vero, è ben trovato. Posts: -99014 | From: Chapel Hill, North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2000
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The trunk has five 'sides', the brown vertical stripes are rough, and the first couple inches from the soil is skinny, round, and covered in a slightly rough bark. There are no real flowers to speak of, really.
The leaves sprout only from the very top of the stalk and turn yellow and fall off as the stalk grows. I don't think it ever has leaves further down than about 5 inches from the top.
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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Maybe there are flowers of a sort. I got a not-so-clear close-up of the pods that develop. I don't think the leaves sprout from these pods, but the pods develop occasionally immediately above where a leaf used to be.
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Signora Del Drago, G.R.I.T.S.: Cervus, I heard that schefflera was put on some kind of a "do not plant" list in Florida. Is that true?
Schefflera's considered an exotic invasive; it's native to Australia and if planted outside, can seed and root so easily that it will take over an entire area and keep the native flora from taking root.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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Good work, Joostik. It looked like a succulent to me, but I couldn't put my finger on what variety. It seems to be Euphorbia leuconeura Boissier,
-------------------- People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools. -Alice Walker Posts: 335 | From: Minnesota | Registered: May 2006
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It's strangely exciting to find out what he is after all this time. It looks like Bob is almost at his maximum height, which is fine by me. It's also very good to know to find out that all parts of him are poisonous if ingested. I'm glad the cat has always been content to bat at the leaves and nothing more.
Not that it matters, but he's named after Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons since they bear a certain resemblance to each other.
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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Awww, I completely missed the excitement of this thread! I was even the one who offered to identify it for you!
Now...with that in mind - wanna send me some seeds?
-------------------- "I find them to be in contradiction of the basic principles of YOUR MOM!!!" -We've Got Mail Posts: 1361 | From: Muncie, IN | Registered: Sep 2005
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Ah, I knew that thing looked familiar. The very first search I did, after stumbling across this thread was for palm +madagascar. I had it in my mind it was some sort of palm from madagascar. I was in succulents when I had to give up and go to bed last night, but my geography was wrong.
Good job Joostik!
-------------------- Explore, enjoy and protect the planet --- AAMAH Posts: 8532 | From: Michigan | Registered: Mar 2000
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Not that it matters, but he's named after Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons since they bear a certain resemblance to each other.
It does matter! That's an awesome name.
My oldest has a bamboo plant she named Lamar- why, we don't know... but when it was in her room, it was knocked over by a cat and we heard it downstairs. She leapt to her feet and ran upstairs screaming: "Lamar!! NOOOOO!"
-------------------- "Is it ME? Am I a MAGNET for these idiots?"~Pearl Forrester MST3K Die-Hard Engineers, Big Red One my Dad's website "Must be a 'snopes' thing..." ~my entire family when I try to explain something. Posts: 4524 | From: South of Madison, Wisconsin | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by FrogFeathers: She leapt to her feet and ran upstairs screaming: "Lamar!! NOOOOO!"
Hah! That happened to me at my last job. Most of the cubicle offices were non-profit sports organizations but we were the silly artsy folk who shared their floor. We had a little potted cactus named Cactuar and his mission was to defend the desk (he formerly defended my television at home, but he was no match for the cat). I also had a toy monkey (Abu from Aladdin) wearing a party hat sitting at the conference table, positioned so he'd be staring at anyone who came in. As I said, silly artsy folk.
A young man from a neighboring cubicle came in to ask if they could borrow my PC toolkit. He seemed a little nervous or awkward asking the silly artsy females for tools. I got it off the shelf and handed it to him. As he turned to leave his eye caught the monkey and in his distraction and double-take he knocked Cactuar off the desk. My assistant and I, simultaneously and without thinking: "Cactuar! NOOOOO!" The poor guy was mortified, apologized profusely and tried to clean up the sand and gravel from the carpet. We assured him it was okay, it was just a $3 plant from IKEA, we'd clean up, it was no big deal.
We found the toolkit slipped under the cage the next morning and he avoided us for the rest of the summer.
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who has ever named a houseplant. Back in the 80's a colleague and I were stuck in a small office with bugger all to do (literally!)
We chipped in together and bought a small cactus we named George. We then passed some of our empty hours making outfits for George out of office supplies. In the summer George would sport a pair of natty sunglasses, a hat and a jacket. We used different colours of highlighter to make different clothes for him. We would also bid him hello and goodbye, and we put him on the signing-in sheet.
Sad I know, but it really was boring there.
Unfortunately, after our inevitable redundancy, my colleague won the not very bitterly disputed custody battle for George - okay it was a coin toss.
I only ever saw George once again after that, a few years later. He didn't look well.
Last I heard George had sadly passed away.
-------------------- "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people." Posts: 997 | From: Maidstone, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Eddylizard: I'm glad I'm not the only one who has ever named a houseplant.
My mother has a rick-rack plant named Christina Aguilera that took a third in the New England Flower show last spring.
Four Kitties
-------------------- If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales? Posts: 13275 | From: Kindergarten World, Massachusetts | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Eddylizard: We then passed some of our empty hours making outfits for George out of office supplies.
Heehee. We used to make outfits for Abu. It's amazing what you can do for a stuffed monkey with paper, tape, and markers. He had a lovely Easter bonnet, a leprechaun outfit with little pot of gold, a miter, a hockey uniform. Ah, good times.
-------------------- "You're the opposite of troll. It's a compliment!" Posts: 12086 | From: Alberta | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Eddylizard: I'm glad I'm not the only one who has ever named a houseplant.
My mother has a rick-rack plant named Christina Aguilera that took a third in the New England Flower show last spring.
Four Kitties
From those pictures that thing looks bloody scarey. How big is it? Are you sure it's not a triffid?
-------------------- "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is commonly known as money. It comes in all sizes, colours, and denominations - like people." Posts: 997 | From: Maidstone, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Four Kitties: My mother has a rick-rack plant named Christina Aguilera that took a third in the New England Flower show last spring.
Oh, I want one! Do you know where I can get one?
-------------------- Explore, enjoy and protect the planet --- AAMAH Posts: 8532 | From: Michigan | Registered: Mar 2000
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