Here is my office:
As you can see, I've got alot of plants ... a number of different types - around 11 or 12 plants.My favorite plant is this one:
This plant is a "Euphorbia Leuconeura". I was particularly interested to find out what kind of plant this is so that I could get it to propogate properly. It took a bit of detective work - my Mum indicated it was a Euphorbia - which is a rather large genus of different plant types - about 2160 different species. They are generally distinguished by having a caustic, poisonous latex sap (i.e. they bleed a white latex fluid when their skin is pricked).
It took a bit of work to figure out which of the 2160 different species this particular plant actually is ... but, thanks to Google Image Search, I went through pages of images until I found one that matched my plant. I discovered that the common name is "Madagascar Jewel".
In terms of propagation, the plant propogates by creating little husky seed casings with little petals. These eventually dry and fall off the plant, where they (eventually, and with luck) generate into tiny little plants.
I haven't had much luck getting them to propogate, but I discovered that they like the early morning sun - this seems to get the plant to create the seed casings. I discovered - just yesterday - one of these plants growing in a different pot!
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Maybe I could adopt one of the offspring for my office!
Pejl
The seeds do more than just "fall off the plant."
There's a Euphorbia leuconeura in the corner of a greenhouse at UC Davis and little seedlings are constantly coming up in other pots or even out of the wood on damp benches around the room. I noticed the seedlings years ago but I never really stopped to wonder why they were showing up so far away from the mother plant. I just thought they were cute and I took one home to raise as a houseplant.
Now my own "Madagascar Jewel" is full grown and constantly in bloom. It sits on my desk near my computer at home, and sometimes while I'm reading something online I'll hear a soft "pop" and then hear a sound like grains of rice hitting the walls, the ceiling, the windows, etc. The fruits are explosively dehiscent, you see, and they can send the seeds out a good ten feet. If you haven't noticed the effect yet, you probably have too much noise in your office. But look around on the floor. The seeds will be there.
Hi commenter from UC Davis,
Actually, I've moved one of my plants to my home office, and I've observed exactly what you've described - at random times there will be a pop and a seed comes bouncing out!
I have successfully sprouted these seeds by planting them, like any other seed, in commercial seed starting mix and keeping it quite moist and very warm, 80 degrees F or so. They take some time but after a few weeks they will sprout. So far every seed planted has sprouted.
.... I also have one in my office and it took forever to find out what it was... It is great and everyone wants one. Hard to find the seeds in the carpet though...
I have one of these and it has some sentimental value to me. but all of a sudden it only has 2 upper leaves!!! do you have any idea what can i do to make it not so spindly and keep it from dying?!
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