Fingers and Toes houseplant question

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mwinder Severance, KS Jun 25, 2012

I bought a houseplant labelled "fingers and toes" at a church bazaar. It has no regular leaves, just jointed, green, stem-like branches about the thickness of uncooked spaghetti that grow at different angles. The "stems" seem to be a type of succulent, perhaps. If the "stems" land on the soil of a nearby pot, a new plant will take root. It seems to like sun and it doesn't need much water. I am just wondering what the scientific name is, so I can look it up and find out more about it and its origins. Thanks.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jun 25, 2012

Can you post a picture?

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tommyr2006 Poughkeepsie, NY(Zone 6a) Jun 26, 2012

A picture would indeed help. A quick Google search showed no help on it. Never heard of a plant by this name. First thing I thought of was Lithops.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jun 26, 2012

Common names are notoriously unreliable since often the same plant can have multiple different common names, and the same common name is often applied to multiple unrelated plants. Based on the description, here are a couple plants that have "finger" in the common name that seem like maybe they'd fit the description--if you can't take a picture take a look at these and see if anything looks like a match:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/192985/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/93053/

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gardenworm2 Standish, MI Jun 26, 2012

sounds like a Euphorbia Tirucallie or pencil plant

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mwinder Severance, KS Jun 26, 2012

It is a pencil plant. Thanks for your help! (Fingers and toes must be another common name for it that isn't very common, I guess.) When I looked up pencil plant on the Internet, there were comments about the sap being irritating/dangerous. I didn't know that and will be careful. It's a very interesting plant. Thanks again.

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gardenworm2 Standish, MI Jun 26, 2012

Its related to the Poinsettia and both contain the same type of sap.

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shune Burien, WA(Zone 7b) Jun 30, 2012

I have this, I called 'bony fingers' for years until I found it. Rhipsalis salicornioides

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maddy Sodwana Bay KZN, South Africa Jul 14, 2012

Sounds like Rhipsalis to me, too.
Euphorbia tirucallii is much thicker than uncooked spaghetti and will not root into other pots that easily.
Have I told you yet how much I hate common names?
Regards
Maddy

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