A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Can you help identify this houseplant?

Hello all,

This is my first post, but I've lurked around a bit before. I've got a few houseplants and I enjoy keeping them, but I've got one that has never been identified. It was given to me almost three years ago and it's done well, but I have no idea what it is. I'll occasionally spend a little time digging around the internet but have never seen a plant like it.

The plant is in a 10" pot and the leaves are also about 10" in diameter. The leaves have a nice variegated coloring with heavy ribbing, but I've never noticed it flowering. It gets lots of filtered light early in the day and easily tolerates my careless watering. Can anyone help me?

Welcome, emarkd. I have no idea what your plant is but it is beautiful. Maybe some one more knowledgeable will come along later with an ID. It does remind me of an elephant ear I have seen.

Welcome to the forum, emarkd. I'm sorry I don't know what your plant is, but I want to get one of those!

I agree with the others, its a beauty and your doing really well taking care of it. Maybe its local to your area ??? Where are you located???

Thanks to all for your kind comments. I'm in Georgia. The plant was sent to the funeral home when my great-grandmother passed almost three years ago and it wound up at my house. I don't know anything about it, or even who originally sent it. I had it sitting in a much darker location and it survived there, but I moved it to it's current location about a year ago and it's really done well. I've enjoyed it and I'd like to know what it is.

I've also got an elephant ear. It's an Alocasia Amazonica (sp?) and it's sitting in my home office where the computers keep the temperature a little higher. This unknown plant is similar, but different enough that I don't think it's from the same family. But then again, what do I know?

What ever it is , keep it . Looks very neat an happy there.

at first I was going to say it looked similar to a peace plant, but when I took another look I see it's a stem with just one leaf on the end. how interesting!
it's very pretty.

hello and welcome---

That is a beautiful plant, and yes I agree with Dodge--it seems to love it where you have it now.

I wish I could help you with an identification----I will be watching closely top see if someone can identify it for you.---

it looks like a variety of aspidistra aka cast iron plant. i'm not familiar with that particular variety, but the ones i have are so tough. right now, i have it on the front porch, and even the one that isn't properly potted, and is half out of the soil and laying on its side is doing well. (it's still alive )

by the way, where in georgia are you? i'm just out side of savannah.

Aspidistra Elatior maybe?

I've never had an Aspidistra, so maybe this is from the same family. I don't think it's an Elatior, though. The pictures of Aspidistra Elatior that I find online shows a long, narrow leaf with a very short stem where as my plant has leaves that are nearly round and perched high on the stem.

Jiffymouse, I'm north of you. I'm West of Atlanta near the Alabama border.

I have been looking at this and searching because it is so beautiful, I want to know too. I have a single link I am going to PM to you. It is the closest I have gotten so far.

Thanks to all of those who helped. My houseplant has been identified! It's a Calathea Orbifolia!

That is a beautiful plant. I will be on the lookout for one of those.

I will be doing just as Tina and Joclyn are doing----yep yep!!!!

Well, I'm glad I could introduce you all to this plant. Good luck in your search and thanks again for all the help. This seems like a very friendly community. :)

emarkd,

Welcome to our play pen.......

Sure were all friendly just like a puppy.

Ask and we answer..

We enjoy lots of plants an seeds and learn from each others mistakes.
I didnt even know where seeds were at till I got on here..LOL

Thanks for joinin in.

Pennsylvania here.

Thanks emarkd! Now that it has been identified, I read a bit about it. Apparently they can be difficult to care for, so you obviously have a green thumb! I haven't found out yet if we can get them in Australia.

That sure is a pretty peacock plant.

so I take it that "Peacock Plant" is the common name of the Calathea Orbifolia????

Thanks for the compliments everyone. Stevie_g, I don't know about my green thumb. I think I've been more lucky with this one than anything. I recently gave up on a three-year-old peace lily that has looked miserable for about two years now. So I've had my share of failures. I also read where this Calathea should be a bit temperamental, but I swear mine's been very forgiving. I've went out of town for long periods and let it get so dry it was drooping badly. I've neglected to clean it properly and let the leaves get thick with dust before. I've also let it stay root bound for way too long, but it just keeps bouncing back.

Not to mention that I'm apparently giving it too much light and have never attempted to maintain a high humidity around it, which I now know are important for this plant to thrive. Maybe by adjusting those two things, I can get mine to bloom. I've never seen it do that before.

I hope you can get it to bloom. I think I read that not all of the plants in that family bloom, but I could be wrong there. Do you get fairly mild winters where you are?

Fairly mild. I'm in Georgia and we usually get a short period of overnight freezes every year, but daytime winter temps are usually in the 30's or 40's.

We also tend to keep our house pretty cool - mainly because we're cheap. :) Indoor temperatures around 60 are pretty normal during the winter at my house.

It reminds me of the Bat Plant but the leaves are a little wide for that species, maybe something in that same family?