Plant list suggestions from David Solomon

David Solomon writes:

I thought this was coming so this weekend I jotted down some ideas. , thinking mostly in terms of plant families in true DIP style! (But seriously: a nice spread of families would help us lear to identify them.) A nice spread of plant types might be nice too: trees, epiphytes,lianes, herbs and aquatics (for the central pond) and of geographical regions, of course, and uses. Anyway, here’s my personal list of top families. Not comprehensive and rather weighted towards the ones we’ve already covered in DIP, but it might get at least get the ball rolling:Piperaceae πŸ™‚ (already one there?) Trimeniaceae or Illiciaceae (a nice Australian climber?)

Nelumbonaceae (Chinese sacred lotus for the pond?)

Cabombaceae and/or Nyphaeaceae for the pond

Hydatellaceae for the pond (I think these are available for aquaria), maybe some Isoetes and/or Marsileaceae round the edge, if available.

Marantaceaea (lots of nice pretty tropical herbs) πŸ™‚

Bromeliaceae (could ave several differnt ones as epiphytes. We already have some Tillandsia etc. Neotropics) πŸ™‚

Clusiaceae (there are epiphytes here too)

Lauraceae (a small tree, eg Camphor Laurel)

Marttiaceae (is Elephant fern i this family? I remember the huge fern at Wisley was in it.) πŸ™‚

Aspleniaceae (a nice epihytic bird’s nest fern) πŸ™‚

Passifloraceae (beatiful climers from the neotropics. Could get several as they take up hadly any space!)

Acanthaceae (Some nice tropical herbs, I think. I seem to remember that Kew has quite a few in the Tropical greenhouse)

Cyperaceae: we already have Papyrus for the pond πŸ™‚

Arecaceae: some small palms though I couldn’t say which πŸ™‚

Orchidaceae: unlimited choice. I fancy the one at Wisley that looked and smelt like rotting meat πŸ™‚

Cactaceae: eg the unique african species Rhipsalis megalantha or a Pereskia. πŸ™‚

Malvaceae: Theobroma cacao (Chocolate!! I think we should be able to get hold of some of these, no? Originally neotropics of course)

Rafflesia…would be nice but probably not available!

Others (Zingiberaceae, Musaceae…) we already have but it would be nice to get some more Araceae as there is such a wide variety incuding spectacular ones and atypical ones like Zamioculcas zamiifolia. πŸ™‚

About Alastair Culham

A professional botanist and biologist with an interest in promoting biological knowledge and awareness to all.
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One Response to Plant list suggestions from David Solomon

  1. Some of those species are already on my hit list. Angiopteris is in Marattiaceae so that is covered. Passiflora should be no problem, nor cocoa although the greenhouse has proven too cold for it in the past so we might well not be able to grow it at the 28 C it likes year round. There are some good small palms, we have many bromeliads already, Nelumbo would be possible – I’ve grown it from seed before, Cabomba is readily available, ….

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