Identification Help: Mystery Plant

**globalist1789** · #1 February 11th, 2006, 09:49 AM

Sorry, I don’t have a camera. I just bought a plant a walmart (one of the $1.79 plants). I’ve looked at about a billion photos trying to find it but no luck. It stands about 6 inches tall. It’s yellow/green colour with some light brown speckling. The leaves stand most vertical, they are very thick and fleshy and the whole plant has the look and translucency as if it were molded out of wax! It has no flexibility. The leaves have no veins and generally curly. I’m totally lost, so any help would be great! I’ve never seen anything like it and so I don’t know how to care for it.

Man, I wish I had a camera! Could is be some kind of succulent?

**Junglekeeper** · #2 February 11th, 2006, 10:49 AM

Two guesses:

Sansevieria trifasciata, Snake Plant.
Codiaeum sp., Croton. (Ones with the narrow, corkscrew leaves.)

**globalist1789** · #3 February 11th, 2006, 11:24 AM

Sorry, nope, but thank-you. The one I have doesn't have veins in the leaves. It's leaves don't have sharp, but rather smooth rounded edges. It looks like wax and is a light colour. Those plants are very fibrous, this mine is not. I guess I should have added that the plant has more of a "tree" shape than all of the leaves coming out at ground level. There is also very little difference in the colour and texture between the leaves and the "trunk". There is nothing woody about this plant at all.

Thanks again

Franny · #4 February 21st, 2006, 12:06 AM

Possibly some form of Echeveria?--Huge family! Or Gasteria?

**Joe Keller** · #5 February 21st, 2006, 12:32 AM

Maybe Gasteria verruculosa

**globalist1789** · #6 February 21st, 2006, 01:14 AM

Sadly no. Though those are nice plants. I just need to wait until I can get a pick. Unless there is someone who bought the same plant at walmart and knows what it is, there is no way for me to describe it better.

I tell you... I've literally looked at several thousand plant photos trying to find this thing. I think the seach is driving me mad lol

Thanks anyhow, and take care

**Marn** · #7 February 21st, 2006, 10:52 AM

could it be this plant .. Florida Beauty .. here is a link to look at .. it isnt that good of a pic of them .. ya might try searching google for this plant .. i have a pic of this plant somewere .. but not sure were :) on my computer..

http://www.denverplants.com/foliage/html/FlBeauty.htm

Marn

**Marn** · #8 February 21st, 2006, 11:04 AM

ok here is my pic i found of the Florida Beauty ..

Marn

my pic is not showing up for some reason .. here is a link .. i hope it works .. let me know if yo see it..

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7...aBeauty020.jpg

**globalist1789** · #9 February 21st, 2006, 03:32 PM

The photo works fine. It's a nice plant, but not the one I have. The colours are exactly right, but there is much more of the yellow. The leaves of the Florida Beauty a leaves that I would consider "normal", but the leaves on my plant are very different. I just can't find the words to describe how. They are not at all flexible, and if you try to bend them they snap, much like a piece of bell pepper or some other vegetable. They are very crisp and juicy inside (despite the soil being completely dry when I bought it) and they are not fibrous at all. They are shinny like the Florida Beauty, but curly or curvy in a very irregularly way. There is a subtle hint of pink in the stem.

**Marn** · #10 February 22nd, 2006, 06:33 PM

could it be a Hoya of some type ??.. search google ..

Marn

**Rima** · #11 February 23rd, 2006, 04:17 PM

What is the width to length ratio of the leaves and how big are they? And are they coming off a woody stem/trunk, or growing from a single base, or individually as if they'd been planted separately?

**globalist1789** · #12 February 23rd, 2006, 05:08 PM

The plant stands about 6 inches tall. It looks like it’s been grown from 3 separate cuttings in the pot. The trunk is herbaceous as opposed to being woody. They branch at several places. Each stem is segmented like a ficus plant, but not woody. What would appear to be the mature leaves are about 2 ½-3 inches long, and 1 ½-2 inches wide. All of the leaves are contorted in some way, but not due to damage. The whole plant is quite rigid, but more due to turgor pressure (the plant is very juicy inside) than actually woody/mechanical support.

Thank you all for your interest, I have tapped out every internet resource I can find.

**Marn** · #13 February 24th, 2006, 01:12 AM

ok try this link and look through all the alphabets of plants they have .. ya might find it there ..

http://www.denverplants.com/foliage/nav/listing.htm

you can also look through this site.. he has all variegated plants but ya might find it ..

http://community-2.webtv.net/gr33nthumb/PLANTLIST/

here is another one ...
http://www.hort.wisc.edu/Hort233Site...plant_list.htm

ill try and find more links if you dont find anything in those 2 ..
or mayb even try going back to walmart and asking someone on the plant dept if they know ..
good luck

Marn

**globalist1789** · #14 February 24th, 2006, 02:57 AM

Thanks Marn. I just finished combing over the "Denver plants" page... to no avail. My eyes hurt and I will check the other sites tomorrow. I really don’t understand why this plant is so hard to find. Heck, it’s a Walmart plant, how uncommon can it be? My specimen could be so freakishly deformed and I wasn’t able to recognize it from a photo of a “normal” plant.

At Denver Plants I did just find out that a small plant I bought yesterday (to make a bottle garden with) is a Peperomia and not some novelty African Violet as I thought. It’s a nice plant.

I’m very new to houseplants, but I’m a pretty sharp guy with good research skills and my plant care and propagation are going very well. Who would have thought that IDing one plant would be the hardest thing?! lol. Oh well, I surely not the first person to have an unknown plant in there home.

Michael

**Marn** · #15 February 24th, 2006, 01:06 PM

lol.. i hear ya .. i had a plant that took months for me to find the name of ..
and im one to check with walmarts plants all the time so i know what ones they get in and ive been tring to think what they might have .. plus there is another store that they have gotten some cool plants in and i know the names of pretty much all of them .. im pretty good and nameing them all off ..lol.
do you have someone around you that has a digital camera that could take a pic and send it to ya to post ???.. that would so help right now with this stumper ..lol.. im sure it is a common plant :)
well im sure you will come across it soon ..

Marn

**globalist1789** · #16 February 24th, 2006, 02:37 PM

I really has com down to geting a pic of the thing. Perhaps I'll take my plant on a trip to visit someone with a camera.

**Marn** · #17 February 25th, 2006, 12:08 AM

LOL.. i hope ya can .. now im curious as to know what it is .. :) .
wished i still lived in Vancouver .. but now im 600 miles away .. was born and raised there :) but now in Oregon ..

well hope ya can get a pic .. email me or PM me through here when ya do ..

Marn

**globalist1789** · #18 March 1st, 2006, 01:12 PM

Got it!!…. I think.

I was walking around, doing some $2 plant shopping (as I often do). I see a plant that looks like the plant in question, yet different. The plant was labeled “Peperomia”. My hunch was right and the one I have is freakishly deformed, but in a quaint way. Best I can find, the name of my plant is Peperomia obtusifolia 'Golden Gate' or a very close relative. I’m not too ashamed of myself, peperomias are a very diverse group of plants. My guess is that the specimen I have was grown in very cramped conditions which account for the deformation of the leaves.

Thank you all for your help
Michael

**Marn** · #19 March 1st, 2006, 04:56 PM

well thatis cool that you got it figured out .. and ya know what .. i have one of them .. i have the variegated form ..lol. but i guess being wisted threw me off .. :)
im glad ya found out what it was ...

Marn

**Honeysuckle** · #20 March 4th, 2006, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by globalist1789

Got it!!…. I think.
Best I can find, the name of my plant is Peperomia obtusifolia 'Golden Gate' or a very close relative. Michael

What a funny string of guesses... I think the name you're looking for is Dracaena "Gold Dust". I've got one too... google to see pix.
I hate that plants are so often mislabeled or unlabeled. Hard to say which is worse!!

**globalist1789** · #21 March 4th, 2006, 09:37 PM

Dracaena "Gold Dust" was one of the front runners in my search before I found the plant at the shop. The colours are right, but they are in different proportions. Also, I wasn't able to find any good pictures of the stem structure of the Dracaena "Gold Dust". I had a heck of a time (and that is an understatement). I still stick by it being some variety of Peperomia.

Just imagine if they labeled our food as poorly as they label our houseplants!

**oscar** · #22 March 5th, 2006, 05:03 AM

Quote:

I hate that plants are so often mislabeled or unlabeled. Hard to say which is worse!!

Dont take this the wrong way, but for $1.79 what do you expect, currently plants cant be rolled off a production line.......seed has to be sown or cutting struck= cost of seed or cutting (cutting raised means looking after a parent plant) labour of person sowing the seeds or taking the cutting, pots and compost arnt free you know, then theres the maintenance of glass houses and or tunnels, more money, office staff, accountants, taxes, vehicle to transport the plants.......and you want a label as well Oo would ya like me to come round and water it for you once a week.

thats probably like poking a stick in a hornets nest...........but i feel better now.

**Marn** · #23 March 5th, 2006, 01:05 PM

I have seen many of the $1.79 plants labelled with the names.. it is usually people that come along ..look at the tag and then stik it back in another pot .. they dont care cause they are not buying it .. i always make sure i put it back in the same pot ..

dont take this the wrong way Oscar ..but that was kind of a rude answer .. :)

Marn

**Padraigan** · #24 April 21st, 2007, 04:48 PM

kinda???? 100%

**riptidefrog** · #25 April 21st, 2007, 06:45 PM

Ahhh i think oscar makes a good point about plants having to go through so many steps before they get to our homes. Alot can happen that messes things up along the way........that said i'd still blame walmart. I used to work there and they are the devil.
;-)