Leptecophylla juniperina

Ericaceae is a family of flowering plants found most commonly in acid and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th-most-speciose family of flowering plants. The many well-known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, azalea, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers (Erica, Cassiope, Daboecia, and Calluna for example).



Distribution and ecology
The Ericaceae have a nearly worldwide distribution. They are absent from continental Antarctica, parts of the high Arctic, central Greenland, northern and central Australia, and much of the lowland tropics and neotropics.
The family is largely composed of plants that can tolerate acidic, infertile conditions. Like other stress-tolerant plants, many Ericaceae have mycorrhizal fungi to assist with extracting nutrients from infertile soils, as well as evergreen foliage to conserve absorbed nutrients. This trait is not found in the Clethraceae and Cyrillaceae, the two families most closely related to the Ericaceae. Most Ericaceae (excluding the Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, and some Styphelioideae) form a distinctive accumulation of mycorrhizae, in which fungi grow in and around the roots and provide the plant with nutrients. The Pyroleae tribe are mixotrophic and gain sugars from the mycorrhizae, as well as nutrients.
In many parts of the world, a "heath" or "heathland" is an environment characterised by an open dwarf-shrub community found on low-quality acidic soils, generally dominated by plants in the Ericaceae. A common example is Erica tetralix. This plant family is also typical of peat bogs and blanket bogs; examples include Rhododendron groenlandicum and Kalmia polifolia. In eastern North America, members of this family often grow in association with an oak canopy, in a habitat known as an oak-heath forest.

Some evidence suggests eutrophic rainwater can convert ericoid heaths with species such as Erica tetralix to grasslands. Nitrogen is particularly suspect in this regard, and may be causing measurable changes to the distribution and abundance of some ericaceous species.

Impatiens balsamina

Genus: Impatiens

This plant has a sparsely branched form and narrow lance-shaped, pale green leaves. Cup-shaped hooded flowers 1-2 inches across, either singly or in clusters, are followed by explosive seed capsules. A variety of colors are available, including rose, lilac, and creamy yellow.
Care: Does best in partial shade and moist, well-draining loam. Add composted organic matter to the soil for optimal performance. Shelter from wind. Impatiens balsamina is free-flowering and grows well in shade.
Propagation: Sow seed in early spring.
Problems: Spider mites, flower thrips, root knot nematode, whiteflies, and aphids, especially under glass. Caterpillars outdoors. Gray mold, impatiens necrotic spot virus, fungal leaf spots, Rhizoctonia stem rot, Pseudomonas leaf spot, and Verticillium wilt.

Medicinal uses

Different parts of the plant are used as traditional remedies for disease and skin afflctions. Juice from the leaves is used to treat warts and snakebite, and the flower is applied to burns.This species has been used as indigenous traditional medicine in Asia for rheumatism, fractures, and other ailments. In Korean folk medicine this impatiens species is used as a medicine called bong seon wha dae for the treatment of constipation and gastritis. One in vitro study found extracts of this impatiens species, especially of the seed pod, to be active against antibiotic-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori. It is also an inhibitor of 5α-reductases, enzymes that reduce testosterone levels.

Lamium purpureum

The red deadnettle, purple deadnettle, purple archangel, or velikdenche (Lamium purpureum) is a herbaceous flowering plant native to Europe and Asia.

It grows to 5–20 cm (rarely 30 cm) in height. The leaves have fine hairs, are green at the bottom and shade to purplish at the top; they are 2–4 cm long and broad, with a 1–2 cm petiole (leaf stalk), and wavy to serrated margins.


The zygomorphic flowers are bright red-purple, with a top hood-like petal, two lower lip petal lobes and minute fang-like lobes between.They may be produced throughout the year, including mild weather in winter. This allows bees to gather its nectar for food when few other nectar sources are available. It is also a prominent source of pollen for bees in March/April (in UK), when bees need the pollen as protein to build up their nest.
It is often found alongside Henbit Deadnettle (Lamium amplexicaule), which is easily mistaken for it since they both have similar looking leaves and similar bright purple flowers; they can be distinguished by the stalked leaves of Red Deadnettle on the flower stem, compared to the unstalked leaves of Henbit Deadnettle.

Flower: Corolla irregular (zygomorphic), (purplish) red (rarely white), 10–20 mm (0.4–0.8 in.) long, fused, bilabiate, long-tubed. Upper lip convex, 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in.) long; lower lip approx. 2 mm (0.08 in.) long, lateral lobes very small or absent, central lobe obcordate. Calyx almost regular (actinomorphic), 5-veined, 5-lobed, lobes roughly same length as calyx-tube, branching after flowering. Stamens 4, of which 2 long and 2 short. Pistil a fused carpel, stigma 2-lobed. Inflorescence composed of spike-like, often conical, dense, spike-like, axillary whorls.

Leaves: Opposite (decussate), stalked, stalk wingless. Blade triangularly ovate, with cordate–flat base, net-veined, smooth-haired, evenly shallowly large-toothed. Upper leaves often reddish. Subtending bracts like stem leaves.
Fruit: 4-parted schizocarp. Mericarps slightly bristly, brown.
Habitat: Gardens, soil heaps, rubbish tips, pastures, arable land, wasteland.
Flowering time: May–October.

Dracunculus vulgaris

Common Name: dragon arum
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Araceae
Native Range: Central and eastern Mediterranean
Zone: 7 to 10
Height: 2.00 to 3.00 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to July
Bloom Description: Maroon purple
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flower: Showy, Fragrant
Fruit: Showy

Growing Requirements:

Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, rich soils. Spreads by self-seeding and bulb offsets. Plants are not reliably winter hardy throughout the St. Louis area where mulch should be applied in winter to help protect them from cold temperatures. In cold winter areas north of USDA Zone 6, tubers may be dug up in autumn, overwintered indoors and replanted in spring in somewhat the same manner as dahlias.


Noteworthy Characteristics
Dragon arum is closely related to the Titan arum, which describes why Dragon arum also has the simalar leaves and flowers to it's larger cousin.


Dragon arum is a tuberous herbaceous perennial that is native to rocky areas and hillsides in the central to eastern Mediterranean areas from Greece to the Balkans to Turkey. It typically grows to 3' tall and features large, erect, fan-shaped, palmately-divided, dark green leaves (to 12" long) that are often streaked with white. Each leaf has 9-15 finger-like lobes reportedly resembling in appearance the claw of a dragon, hence the common name.

Leaves appear in clusters on a stalk-like, black/purple-spotted pseudostem. Large, foul-smelling, maroon-purple spathes (each to as much as 20" long and 8" wide) appear above the leaves in late spring/early summer. The foul odor of the spathes, sometimes described as akin to the nauseous aroma of rotten meat, attracts flies for pollinating the flowers. Each spathe envelops a central, upright, nearly black, tail-like spike (spadix) which is nearly as long as the spathe, but sometimes longer, with a diameter of only 1/2 to 3/4". The spathe contains inconspicuous, hidden, unisexual flowers. Flowers are followed by green berries which mature to orange-red in fall. This plant is synonymous with and formerly called Arum dracunculus.

Golden pothos

Epipremnum aureum is a species of flowering plant in the family Araceae, with a broad native Old World distribution. Native range extends from Northern Australia through Malaysia and Indochina into China, Japan and India. 
The species has become naturalised in tropical and sub-tropical forests worldwide, where it has caused severe ecological damage in some cases (see below). 

The plant has a multitude of common names including Australian native monstera, centipede tongavine, devil's ivy, golden pothos, hunter's robe, ivy arum, money plant, silver vine, Solomon Islands ivy and taro vine. 

It is sometimes mistakenly labeled as a Philodendron in plant stores.
E. aureum is an evergreen vine growing to 20 m (66 ft) tall, with stems up to 4 cm (2 in) in diameter, climbing by means of aerial roots which adhere to surfaces. The leaves are alternate, heart-shaped, entire on juvenile plants, but irregularly pinnatifid on mature plants, up to 100 cm (39 in) long and 45 cm (18 in) broad (juvenile leaves much smaller, typically under 20 cm (8 in) long). The flowers are produced in a spathe up to 23 cm (9 in) long. 
This plant produces trailing air roots when it climbs up trees, and leaves on these trailing stems grow up to 40+cm wide.

In temperate regions it is a popular houseplant with numerous cultivars selected for leaves with white, yellow, or light green variegation. It is often used in decorative displays in shopping centers, offices, and other public locations largely because it requires little care and is also attractively leafy. It is also efficient at removing indoor pollutants such as formaldehyde, xylene, and benzene. A study found that this effect lessened the higher the molecular weight of the polluting substance.

 As a houseplant it can reach a height of 2 m (6 ft 7 in) or more, given suitable support. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The plant is sometimes used in aquariums, placed on top of the aquarium and allowed to grow roots in the water. This is beneficial to the plant and the aquarium as it absorbs many nitrates and uses them for growth.

Sansevieria trifasciata

Sansevieria trifasciata, also called snake plant, mother-in-law's tongue or Saint George's sword (in Brazil) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to tropical West Africa from Nigeria east to the Congo.
It is a common ornamental plant, for a few very good reasons. 

Like all easy houseplants, it thrives on neglect. Low light and infrequent, irregular, waterings serve this plant well, which is great for those who want the tropical look, without the bright light and humidity to support it. 
 Many people who have grown Sansevieria for years have never seen it flower because they are ‘too good’ to it.  A rough repotting (or conversely, letting it get too root bound) is often enough to trick Sansevieria trifasciata into flowering (because if it thinks it might die, making offspring is a good idea), although once flowered, new leaves will not grow from that particular rhizome.  While the care is easy and the flowers beautiful, one of its main draws for me originally was its reputation as an “air cleaner”.

Most people, especially plant people, are familiar with the important role that plants (and other photosynthetic organisms) play in our lives by taking in carbon dioxide from the air and producing oxygen. Air quality is about more than just carbon dioxide and oxygen levels though, but thankfully plants play an important role in helping us with air pollution too.

Sansevieria has many varieties, each of them will give an exotic look to any garden. All of these varieties can be grown the same way.

Growing conditions:
The following is also apllied to closely related species, and basically the whole Sansevieria family.


Light: Grows indoors well, and grows best in places with 2~4 hours of direct sunlight. If your windowsill is bright throughout the day, direct sunlight isn't required. 
Leaves turn light yellow, and green becomes grey-green when it is grown under hot, dry sunny condtions so that is not recommended. 
Water: Let the soil dry between waterings. During winter, reduce watering to monthly, or whenever the soil is dry to the touch. In the tropics, this plant should be watered every 2 days.
Temperature: They prefer warmth and will suffer if exposed to temperatures below 50ºF.
Soil: A loose, well-drained potting mix. They will do well in a variety of soils, so just make sure if you water, the water drains out of the soil.
Fertilizer: Feed a mild cactus fertilizer during the growing season; do not fertilizer in the winter. If you grow it in a tropical area, it can be fertilized year round, and ordinary nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer can work wonders on the plant.

Propagation:

Sansevieria can be divided easily during repotting. Alternatively, new shoots, which emerge from the soil as spikes, can be taken and potted independently. They are rapid growers once established. Mature leaves can also be used to clone a new plant, which can be done by placing the base of a mature leave on a bowl of water. 
After 2 months, the base of the leave should have devolped roots, and after 3 months there should be a little plant poping out of the area where it used to connect with that mother plant.


Grower's Tips:
These are one of the best houseplants for beginners and for striking displays. They are excellent in a grouping and will grow equally do well on the floor or on table-top displays. Native to tropical Africa, the biggest danger is overwatering, and over exposure to strong sunlight. There are many growing varieties, but these are rarely seen in garden centers, depending which country you are on.

-I have 7 years of growing experience on Sansevierias, and I've found alot of things about Sansevierias to be false on the internet.

Leuchtenbergia principis

Leuchtenbergia principis (agave cactus or prism cactus), the sole species of the genus Leuchtenbergia, is a species of cactus. It is native to north-central Mexico (San Luis Potosi, Chihuahua). The genus is named after Maximilian Eugen Joseph (1817–1852), Duke of Leuchtenberg and amateur botanist.
It is very slow-growing but can eventually grow up to 70 cm high, with a cylindrical stem which becomes bare and corky at the base with age. It has long, slender, grayish-green tubercles 6–12 cm long, with purplish-red blotches at their tips. The tubercles are topped with papery spines, making the plant resemble an agave; old, basal tubercles dry up and fall off. After four years or so, yellow, funnel-shaped flowers 5–6 cm diameter may be borne at the tubercle tips. The fruit is smooth and green, 3 cm long and 2 cm broad. It has a large, tuberous taproot.

Because they're adapted to grow in the shade of other plants, Leuchtenbergia is perfectly able to survive without a lot of direct sun. The tubercles can move around a bit, depending on the light and humidity: they'll lie flat if there's too little light, and pull closer together and more upright if the air is exceptionally dry. So if you notice that your plant's lying flatter than it was when you bought it, well, that's one possible reason why. 

Musa velutina

Musa velutina, the Pink Banana, is an ornamental variety grown for it's flowers and fruits. Fruits are 3 inches long, pink, and fuzzy with black round seeds. They are borne on erect flower stalks with a pink inflorescence. M. velutina flowers at a young age, doing so within a year. The fruits peel back when ripe. 

However, more than an ornamental, the fruits are actually edible if you don't mind working around the seeds. They will peel themselves back when ripe. If you catch them at the right time, but you have only maybe a day or so to catch it when ripe, opened, and unspoiled, you'll notice the best flavour.

Bananas are herbaceous plants that have a “pseudostem” a cylinder of leaf-petiole sheaths, because of this they are sometimes mistaken for tree
Their rapid growth rate makes bananas plants heavy feeders. During warm weather, apply a balanced fertilizer once a month. Spread the fertilizer evenly around the plant in a circle extending 4 feet from the trunk. Feed container banana plants on the same monthly schedule using about half the rate for outside plants.

Bismarckia nobilis

Bismarckia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family endemic to western and northern Madagascar where they grow in open grassland. The genus is named for the first chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck and the epithet for its only species, Bismarckia nobilis, comes from Latin for 'noble'.

Bismarckia nobilis grows from solitary trunks, gray to tan in color, which show ringed indentations from old leaf bases. Trunks are 30 to 45 cm in diameter, slightly bulging at the base, and free of leaf bases in all but its youngest parts. In their natural habitat they can reach above 25 meters in height but usually get no taller than 12 m in cultivation. The nearly rounded leaves are enormous in maturity, over 3 m wide, and are divided to a third its length into 20 or more stiff, once-folded segments, themselves split on the ends. 

The leaves are induplicate and costapalmate, producing a wedge-shaped hastula where the blade and petiole meet. Petioles are 2–3 m, slightly armed, and are covered in a white wax as well as cinnamon-colored caducous scales; the nearly-spherical leaf crown is 7.5 m wide and 6 m tall. Most cultivated Bismarckias feature silver-blue foliage although a green leaf variety exists (which is less hardy to cold).

These palms are dioecious and produce pendent, interfoliar inflorescences of small brown flowers which, in female plants, mature to a brown ovoid drupe, each containing a single seed.

Found only in Madagascar, an island well known for its rich diversity of unique taxa, Bismarckia is one genus among a diverse palm flora (some 170 palms of which 165 are solely in Madagascar).They grow in the plains of the central highlands, nearly reaching the western and northern coasts, in savannas of low grass, usually in lateritic soil. As much of this land has been cleared with fire for agricultural use, Bismarckias, along with other fire-resistant trees like Ravenala madagascariensis and Uapaca bojeri, are the most conspicuous components of this arid region.

Aerangis fastuosa

This is a dwarf, hot growing, variable, epiphytic species from Madagascar and found in the transitional land between the coastal plain and the central plateau in evergreen forests onn twigs and small branches at elevations of 1000 to 1500 meters with very short stems carrying several obovate to oblong-cuneiform, fleshy, unequally bilobed at the apex leaves. The flowers are large, long lasting and fragrant at night and occur in the late winter and spring on a short, 2" [5 cm] long, 1 to 6 flowered inflorescence with large cuculate floral bracts.

Ascocentrum miniatum

The Rust-red Ascocentrum (Ascocentrum miniatum) is a species of orchid which grows in humid forest of Assam, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Java, Malaysia, Philippines, Sumatra at elevations of 0 to 1200 meters.


Plant blooms from Winter to Spring with many 1.2 to 1.5 cm wide flowers, and can grow up to 30 cm tall. The plant is very similar to Ascocentrum garayi but differs by having a much narrower petals, a recurved lip, and more transparent veiny flowers.


Chromosome count of Asctm. miniatum is 2n = 38. When hybridizing with Asctm. miniatum the F1 generation usually contain plants with orange or orange-yellow regardless of the other parent's color.

Plants are best grown hanged in baskets and on mounted and require bright to full sunlight and intermediate to warm temperatures. If hunged the roots must be watered frequently. Slightly reduce watering in the winter. Plants should be grown in media that is well drained such as tree fern fibers (for small plants), several pieces of coarse fir bark, or sphagnum moss.

Vanilla planifolia

Vanilla planifolia is a species of vanilla orchid. It is native to Mexico, and is one of the primary sources for vanilla flavouring, due to its high vanillin content. Common names are Flat-leaved Vanilla, Tahitian Vanilla (for the Pacific stock formerly thought to be a distinct species), and West Indian Vanilla (also used for the Pompona Vanilla, V. pompona). Often, it is simply referred to as "the vanilla". It was first scientifically named in 1808.


Flowers are greenish-yellow, with a diameter of 5 cm (2 in). They last only a day, and must be pollinated manually, during the morning, if fruit is desired. The plants are self-fertile, and pollination simply requires a transfer of the pollen from the anther to the stigma. If pollination does not occur, the flower is dropped the next day. In the wild, there is less than 1% chance that the flowers will be pollinated, so in order to receive a steady flow of fruit, the flowers must be hand-pollinated when grown on farms.

Chayote

Pronounced [chah-YOH-teh], the chayote is another native Mexican plant and is a member of the squash family. It is also referred to as a "vegetable pear" or chcocho. In France the chayote is called a christophene. The flesh is quite crisp something like a water chestnut. The chayote is seen in two forms, smooth and prickly.


Chayote (Sechium edule) was actually domesticated in Mexico and seen in South American until after the Spanish conquest. (Sophie Coe, America's First Cuisines). The starchy squash was a staple of the Aztecs. The name chayote is derived from the Nahuatl world chayotli. 
The squash is actually a member of the gourd family but it unusual given it has a single seed and it is a perennial (it can come back every year from the same plant)

The Mayans added chayote shoots (as a green) to beans and also ate the fruit and the starchy roots.  The chayote shown here is the prickly variety.

The chayote vine grows and yeilds best if a support is provided. It has heart-shaped leaves, 10–25 cm wide and tendrils on the stem. The plant bears male flowers in clusters and solitary female flowers.The plant’s fruit is light green and elongated with deep ridges lengthwise.

Taxus brevifolia

Taxus brevifolia (Pacific yew or western yew) is a conifer native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. It ranges from southernmost Alaska south to central California, mostly in the Pacific Coast Ranges, but with isolated disjunct populations in southeast British Columbia (most notably occurring on Zuckerberg Island near Castlegar) and in south to central Idaho.


Characteristics
The pacific yew is a small to medium-sized evergreen tree, growing 10–15 m tall and with a trunk up to 50 cm diameter, rarely more. In some instances, trees with heights in excess of 20 m occur in parks and other protected areas, quite often in gullies. 

The tree is extremely slow growing, and old trees often rot from the inside creating hollow forms. This makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to make accurate rings counts to determine a specimen's true age. Often damaged by succession of the forest, it usually ends up in a squat, multiple leader form.
It has thin scaly brown bark, covering a thin layer of off-white sap wood with a darker heartwood that varies in color from brown to a magenta/purplish hue. The leaves are lanceolate, flat, dark green, 1–3 cm long and 2–3 mm broad, arranged spirally on the stem, but with the leaf bases twisted to align the leaves in two flat rows either side of the stem except on erect leading shoots where the spiral arrangement is more obvious.


The seed cones are complex, each cone containing a single seed 4–7 mm long partly surrounded by a modified scale which develops into a soft, bright red berry-like structure called an aril, 8–15 mm long and wide and open at the end. The arils are mature 6–9 months after pollination, and with the seed contained are eaten by thrushes and other birds, which disperse the hard seeds undamaged in their droppings; maturation of the arils is spread over 2–3 months, increasing the chances of successful seed dispersal. The male cones are globose, 3–6 mm diameter, and shed their pollen in early spring. It is mostly dioecious, but occasional individuals can be variably monoecious, or change sex with time.

Eucalyptus alb

Eucalyptus alba, or white gum, is a species of Eucalyptus which is native to Australia, Timor, and New Guinea. A dominant tree of open woodland, it reaches 18 m (60 ft) high with a spread of up to 15 m (50 ft).

Taxonomy

Eucalyptus alba was first described in 1826 by Carl Ludwig Blume, after being discovered byCaspar Georg Carl Reinwardt on Timor.The specific epithet is the Latin word albus "white" and relates to the bark. Within the genus Eucalyptus, it belongs in the subgenus Symphyomyrtus.Common names include white gum, poplar gum, khaki gum, wongoola, salmon gum and Timor white gum.

Description

It grows as a small to medium tree from 5 to 18 m (15-60 ft) high with a spreading crown of 5 to 15 m (15-50 ft). The short trunk is often bent and has smooth grey to white powdery bark. Freshly-exposed new bark is pink. The leathery ovate grey-green juvenile leaves are alternately arranged along the stems and measure 10-20 cm (4-8 in) long by 8-12 cm (2.2-4.8 in) wide. The adult leaves are ovate to lanceolate in shape and measure 5-12 cm (2-4.8 in) long by 5-8 cm (2-3.2 in) wide. The white flowers appear from August to November and can be profuse.

A dominant tree in open woodlands, it is found from northeastern Western Australia across the Top End and into Queensland, as well as New Guinea and Timor. It is often found on ridges and elevated areas, often on poor soil.

Eucalyptus alba has horticutural appeal as a small ornamental tree,and can also attract birds. It has also been used for fencing in northern Australia, while the flowers have been used in the beekeeping industry for honey. It was valued by aborigines in the Northern Territory for firewood.