Broad leaf, oval shaped with a slight pointed tip, about 6" long and 4" wide, medium green, one center vein with subtle textured veins running from center to outer edge in a roundish V shape, non-serrated edges. When new, each leaf has ~14 symetrical squarish "brush strokes" of burgandy, 7 on each side of center, from end to end. Over the course of about 3 weeks, the burgandy fades to a dark green.
Each leaf is on a fleshy stalk which splits open to reveal each new leaf. When a new leaf appears, it extends from the previous stalk and unfurls fully developed, creating it's own stalk.
When it flowers, it produces a very thin stalk which extends about a foot in the air, having two long slender blisters along its length, which split open and produce 2-3 small white trumpet shaped blossoms about a half inch long.
UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 878
It would be extremely helpful to have some context if we are to identify your plant. Where do you live? Is this a garden plant? How long has it been where you are viewing it?
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Douglas Justice
Associate Director
Curator of Collections
I'm sorry, I completely overlooked the context. Zone 6.
This is a houseplant, I picked up at a yard sale. I've had it for several months. It's thriving under 24-7 fluorescent lighting.
Amusingly enough, I looked through one of my A-Z guides, and found only one picture of it, in the troubleshooting section in the back, as an example of too dry an environment. Alas, no name of the plant.
Hard to tell from a written description (albeit a very good one!), but one houseplant that springs to mind (mine anyway) when described as having "brushstrokes" of burgundy and leaves emerging from the petioles of existing leaves is Maranta leuconeura. Just a guess.
Last edited by hungry hippo; April 30th, 2004 at 03:48 PM.
Reason: typo
