Mystery Plant identified!
 

Mr Poole does it again! He came in this morning and looked at our mystery
plant, hummed and ha-ed a bit and said it looked like a Ruspolia or, in any
case, a member of the Acanthaceae family.
Ruspolia seticalyx it is or Pseuderanthemum and only one nursery stocks it
under each name in UK, as far as I can see. The man is amazing!
Now if only he could tell us how we came by it...... ;-) I think we must
have brought seeds back from Hawaii about 5 years ago.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Mystery Plant identified!
 

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:46:56 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


I think we must have brought seeds back from Hawaii about 5 years ago.

Have you brought any seeds back from South Africa? I think that's the
likely place to find Ruspolia.

Steve

Mystery Plant identified!
 

On 10/9/07 18:23, in article ,
"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote:

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:46:56 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


I think we must have brought seeds back from Hawaii about 5 years ago.

Have you brought any seeds back from South Africa? I think that's the
likely place to find Ruspolia.

Steve


I haven't been there since long before I met Ray and Ray has never been
there. However, we do have friends and customers who have a house there but
we've had the plant longer than they've had the plant! Ruspolia are grown
in Hawaii too, so if we got hold of it ourselves, I think that's the more
likely source. I understand from David that they're v. popular in
California, too and we were there about 5 years ago.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Mystery Plant identified!
 

On 10/9/07 18:40, in article
, "Sacha"
wrote:
snip
However, we do have friends and customers who have a house there but
we've had the plant longer than they've had the plant!
snip

Sigh....longer than they've had the *house*. Der.


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Mystery Plant identified!
 

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:40:52 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 10/9/07 18:23, in article ,
"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote:

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:46:56 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


I think we must have brought seeds back from Hawaii about 5 years ago.

Have you brought any seeds back from South Africa? I think that's the
likely place to find Ruspolia.

Steve


I haven't been there since long before I met Ray and Ray has never been
there. However, we do have friends and customers who have a house there but
we've had the plant longer than they've had the plant! Ruspolia are grown
in Hawaii too, so if we got hold of it ourselves, I think that's the more
likely source. I understand from David that they're v. popular in
California, too and we were there about 5 years ago.

Ah I see. I thought you were talking about collecting seeds in the
wild.

Steve

Mystery Plant identified!
 

On 10/9/07 18:51, in article ,
"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote:

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:40:52 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 10/9/07 18:23, in article ,
"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote:

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:46:56 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


I think we must have brought seeds back from Hawaii about 5 years ago.

Have you brought any seeds back from South Africa? I think that's the
likely place to find Ruspolia.

Steve


I haven't been there since long before I met Ray and Ray has never been
there. However, we do have friends and customers who have a house there but
we've had the plant longer than they've had the plant! Ruspolia are grown
in Hawaii too, so if we got hold of it ourselves, I think that's the more
likely source. I understand from David that they're v. popular in
California, too and we were there about 5 years ago.

Ah I see. I thought you were talking about collecting seeds in the
wild.

Steve

You can't - legally - collect seeds in the wild from Hawaii because you have
to bring them back into USA. They X-ray your luggage at Hawaii airports to
make sure you're not carrying back illegal plant material. You can buy
seeds and cuttings with phytosanitary certificates but I really cannot
remember if this was one of them.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

Mystery Plant identified!
 

Sacha is away now, but I mailed her last night with a 95% certainty of
it being Ruspolia hypocrateriformis. Having since 'discussed' this
with folks in the US I can now confirm it to be that species. At
first, I dismissed it as being hypocrateriformis because the few
plants I've seen were so markedly different to the original pic.
However, the second pic and viewing the plant 'in person' reassured me
it was Ruspolia after which, I had to review my thoughts about the
species. Anyway, the mystery is finally solved.