Another of the many new and unusual things coming up in the greenhouse: Malabar Spinach!
Basella alba ‘Rubra’ is the red-stemmed variant of this tropical vine, a plant of dual use: edible and ornamental. As the common name suggests it has qualities similar to spinach with thick succulent oval or heart shaped leaves and juicy stems that can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like its counterpart. Hailing from somewhere in tropical Asia (exact origin unknown as it’s been grown and distributed for so long), it thrives in the heat of summer when regular spinach bolts and then dies away, reaching up to 10 feet or more in length if allowed. If soils turn dry they’ll throw tiny little whitish pink flower spikes from between the leaves, producing black berries with staining dye qualities that hold the seeds.
Quite a few other odd edibles are reaching photographable size, so expect a few similar posts soon.

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A surprise find a couple nights ago: the chunkiest pitcher by a large margin on Nepenthes kongkandana that was hiding between the pots. It’s begun transitioning finally to uppers again so they’re getting smaller and slimmer once more, but it definitely showed off with this one.

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A surprise discovery outside in the trays today: an off-season flower on this young Iris speculatrix!
A native to mountainous regions in southeastern China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, it’s one of the few irises I have currently that are not cold-hardy in my area, and is also what one might call a dwarf species. The entire section this species belongs to are fairly small, which is why even despite having leaves barely a foot tall and flower stalks that max out at 14 inches, speculatrix is still the tallest in the group. Flowers are somewhat variable but generally of very slender build (though this bloom is still showing an extreme in that tendency), with narrow standards and falls in various shades of extremely pale to rich violet and marked closer to the base with deeper purple, surrounding white and brilliant golden yellow. Warm conditions, potentially year round, are appreciated by this species (though its montane habitat means it also likes nighttime temp drops).
I may offer a sibling specimen of this species later this year, but likely only one; I had three seedlings establish themselves and am keeping at least two.

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A CHONK has appeared in the greenhouse…my female Nepenthes sumatrana “Nias” has two big rosettes going presently and one of them just dropped this nearly 7 inch tall trap. Most of the pitchers this plant makes are fairly yellowish in exterior color but this one, having grown far more exposed to the lights than usual, took on a bit more red. The huge blotched lid and highly striped peristome are same as ever though.
This species has remained a slow but steady grower for me, naturally happiest during the warmer summer months, but takes several years to go from the current state of giant rosette to climbing, upper-producing vine (with a nearly inch-thick vine to boot). I only got one flower spike off this plant so far and the seed crop was relatively limited, but of the handful of seedlings that came out of it and are still alive I’m waiting to see take off…and almost certainly produce some spectacular plants.

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Another brand new flower has appeared, on another complex hybrid: Pinguicula (rotundiflora x gracilis) x laueana, HC B. Summer growth is maybe 1.5” at most, lots of wedge-shaped overlapping leaves blushed red…and the flower is 2/3 as wide as the rosette and a set of lavender-rose shades that’s hard to describe, because it’s obvious that there’s more than one color present. Not the more deep-rose or peachy tones I was hoping for considering how white the flowers of the seed parent are, but not surprising either (that laueana red gets lots really quick).

#pinguicula #pinguiculalaueana #butterwort #carnivorouplants #seedgrown #strangeplant #hybrid #rareplants #botany #plants #flowers #stickyplant #glistening #plantsathome #dew #plantsmakepeoplehappy #indoorplants #savagegarden #horticulture #botanical #gardening