Very Hairy



I bought a bunch of Achimenes this spring because I once had them and really enjoyed them, and they were easy to care for because they went dormant over the winter, eliminating the hassle of carrying them over under lights.  When I placed my order, I also got some Eucodonia 'Adele' rhizomes.  They have finally bloomed, and although lovely, the flowers aren't the main attraction in my opinion.

It's the leaves.  Pinkish red cotton-candy like hairs cover the underside of the leaves, pleasantly thicker at the veins.  The tops of the leaves have a bit sparser covering of white hairs.  

Makes you wonder what would drive this species to put so much of its energy into hairs.  I'm guessing that it foils insect pests since it is so much thicker on the underside of the leaves than it is on the tops.  I don't think it is protection from sun or water loss, since there isn't enough on the upper leaves to help filter strong light or prevent transpiration.



Rickrack Cactus and Comb Fern

Forest has been watering the deck plants now, and I've missed some developments.  The Epiphyllum anguliger, rickrack cactus or queen of the night,  has quickly budded in response to the longer nights and cooler weather.  It's burst into bloom to welcome autumn.  The fragrance is wonderful, and there will be many flowers this year.  I've loved this plant.  The cladodes (stems modified to function like leaves) do indeed look like rickrack, and they remind me of Grandma Aker's aprons, which were always adorned with rickrack. 

I did notice something amazing weeks ago.  The rickrack cactus has a pot mate.  Several years ago, I purchased a Schizaea dichotoma,comb fern, from Meehan's Miniatures at the Bonsai Festival.  It grew in a pot with another fern and promptly died when exposed to low humidity indoors.  Now it has inexplicably appeared in the very rootbound pot of the rickrack cactus.  It's an interesting fern.  The genus Schizaea is thought to represent a link between the whisk ferns and other ferns.  At any rate, it must be a very covert fern, since I never noted spores on the fern that died, and both a male and female gametophyte must have been growing with the cactus and united to form the new fern.  I've thought about putting it in another pot or terrarium, but I think I'll leave well enough alone.