Pothos in the wild

We just got back from a trip to Brazil. See if you recognize this plant growing up the trunk of a tree. :) The leaves were huge. Sorry the picture is a bit fuzzy, it was so humid it was hard keeping my camera lens unfogged.

Jenny

That must have been a fabulous trip, Jenny. Would you like to go back again?

Exotica and Tropica show pictures of several Scindapsus and Epipremnum species and Hortus III also lists species of Scindapsus and Epipremnum. Sales catalogs feature names like Devil's Ivy and Golden Pothos. The current name is Epipremnum aureum (alias Scindapsus aureus alias Pothos aureus). `Golden Pothos' is a golden, yellow-green variegated vine with waxy leaves. When grown in optimum conditions, such as the tropics, leaves will grow to two feet in length.

I have also heard that the leaves from plants growing vertically will tend to grow larger than those along the ground.

Jenny: Sounds like that would be a great trip ... Brazil .... Wow! I bet you saw a lot of really nice plants there. The Potho's plants grow like that down here in Florida too. Right down the road from me there's a house with a huge live oak tree with Pothos growing up it ... leaves are HUGE! As Snowrose said ... the leaves that are higher up the tree are larger than the ones down on the ground. I really should stop and take some pic's around town of some of some of these plants! I never seem to remember to take my camera with me in the car but am going to make myself a note to do so! Will try to post a pic or two in the next few days!

Plantladylin,
Yes, please do take pictures for us. For us northerners, seeing what we consider to be a house or greenhouse plant, such as a Bird of Paradise, or a Schefflera, growing in some one's yard and looking huge and grand, is breath taking. It is a reminder of what it is supposed to look like when it is unfettered.

Susan in Minneapolis, where the tropicals will be coming inside in about 6 weeks.

I have a golden pothos that was trained to go up a very thick 5 ft stake and the leaves at the top of the stake were the size of dinner plates. I am not sure why they were so much bigger than the rest of the plant. The stake itself eventually rotted at soil level and I removed it, replacing it with a much smaller long piece of driftwood, but the leaves have never regained that large size.

Here's a good DG photo showing pothos growing up a tree. The higher the plant grows, the larger the leaves.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/4681/

I agree with you, smkennedy. I love seeing the tropicals growing naturally outdoors. I'll be in Florida in September and can hardly wait.

I have noticed that the pothos leaves have a tendency to split (not tear) as they get large, much like a split-leaved philo does. Thanks, snowrose.

Have you also noticed, as I have, that when I am in Florida or California, and see things that take my breath away, such as a HEDGE of jade plants in CA, that other non-plant people don't even register what they are looking at? It interests me how we notice what we have an interest in, and can ignore the rest.

Susan

That photo Snow posted looks like the plants that grow up the trees down here. Oh, I would love to see a photo of a Jade hedge! I bet that is just wonderful! Down in South Florida they grow the Ficus Benjamina as hedges. And, Rubber Trees get taller than houses .... Amazing what plants can do in some environments.

Isn't that amazing!!

I traded once with a friend from South Florida.
She insisted she send me a cutting of her 'Pothos' that was growing up an Oak tree. The leaf was, as Bhavana said hers was, the size of an 'elongated' dinner plate!

I'm impressed, Bhavana, that you got your plant to not only climb but increase it's leaf size!

Susan....I was just thinking the other day that very SOON I'd have to begin bringing plants in.
I usually end up letting it go until the mad-dash of the first frost!

I swear this year I'm starting sooner.......how depressing:(

Nan,
I know exactly what you mean about the mad dash. Part of me wants to leave them out as long as possible, for the benefit to the plants. And, some years, I have made it to mid October before frost threatens. Other years, even though we have 90 degree days in early Sept., all of a sudden I hear on the TV weather that a frost is threatening, and I start filling up my dining room table, floors, sink, etc., with the most sensitive plants, covering up the others. And also, I have two sun rooms that I use for the plants, and they each really need a serious cleaning before I bring the plants in again. But, it often happens that I am too busy outside to deal with cleaning the rooms, and suddenly, I have to put them in the rooms when I haven't cleaned them yet. But a few hundred leaves here or there, what difference does it make?

And then there are the plants that have grown too big that need some pruning to fit back through the doorway or to not touch the ceiling. All part of the fun, I guess.

Susan

smkennedy - oh yes, I agree. When I was in Florida during the Christmas season, I loved seeing blooming hibiscus with white lights, etc., simply gorgeous. And California, what can I say. Saw so much there from San Diego all the way up to the farthest north coast. I kept thinking....I wonder if the residents appreciate how fortunate they are.

We still have about eight weeks or so here until plants need to be brought in or else meet old man frost.

Plantladylin - one of these days you'll have to take photos in your area. Will be especially welcome for us in colder climates later on. We do have a lovely autumn season to look forward to though before we know it.

Bhavana - I am going to train some of my pothos vertically, perhaps on a trellis, and see what happens.

Wow Snow ... Y'all expect it to get cold there in about 8 weeks???!!! That is Amazing! We will not get cold weather here until probably late December! I guess I am spoiled having lived in the state of Florida for 40 years! We do take things for granted sometimes, don't we? A couple of weeks ago my friends son came home on vacation from the San Diego area where he's lived the past year and a half. His girlfriend (Southern Cal born and raised) came with him and she kept saying how amazed she was at how "Green" Florida is. She loved all the tropical plants.

Yep .... I will take some photo's and post them as the weather gets colder up North! We sometimes get a bit of "fall" color down here too. I have a Maple tree in my front yard (not as tall as it used to be cause part of it got hit by the Cane's of 2004 and branches were snapped off. Anyway, some years that tree is the most beautiful colors of gold and orange/red! I just love it! I would post a pic but I'm on my laptop - already shut down the desk top machine where my pic's are, so I can't post one right now.

Great idea about training a pothos onto a trellis .... I might have to give that a try too. I have some things that need to be repotted and may just stick a trellis in the pot with one of my pothos. I would like to make one of those wire/moss things for it to climb on. I have a large Monstera deliciosa that needs repotting and a taller trellis too!

Lin, our weather will be beautiful in about eight weeks. October is one of our best months. But depending on the year, after the middle, we could have frost possible. Some years when we are lucky, we can go a little longer. Protected plants can make it but I usually start bringing them in and wonder where I'm going to put them all. Not nearly as much fun as putting them out.

Remember nannanavarro on the av forum? She and I attended a club meeting last year at someone's home where she had pothos literally vining completely all around her well decorated rooms. I liked it...very interesting.

I bet that looked wonderful! Many years ago when my youngest sister was living in an apartment (before marriage & family) she had pots of the heart leaf philo on shelves high on her wall and had it trailing all around the room .... it looked pretty neat!

I had pothos that took upon itself to grow up the wall of my sunroom, where it is rather humid. It looked very nice, but when I had to remove the vine, it did take paint off of the wall, so keep that in mind. A trellis could prevent that, but you would still have to make sure that it wasn't attaching to the wall as well.

Susan in Minneapolis

My sister just used little tacks in the wall at intervals and some sort of twine and her plants just went crazy.

I had a question about these pothos growing so large on trees and winter time. Do these people just let it die down in the winter and it starts up again in spring or do they go thru the trouble of unwinding it from the tree and bring it in. Im really curious cuz I seriously thought about doing that with a pothos that i have growing and is "really" growing. I've had to cut some of the tips cuz they were growing so long. These cuttings I have in water hopefully to start others but enough is enough.......

Anaid: The ones I see growing here are waaaay too huge to unwind and bring in for winter. They just stay growing up the trees! They are growing up the large Live Oak trees. If we have a hard freeze (which once in a blue moon happens in my area) they get knocked back, but they always come back from the roots. It doesn't stay real cold for very long. We might have temp's in the low 30's at night but it's usually back to the 50's during the day.

We dont have sever winters either and I have started an arrowhead type of plant on one of my trees. Im going to see how it does and possibly just cover it over the winter to see if it works for me. I hate to sacrifice the plant if it does die but I want to see if it will work for me too.

Susan in Minneapolis, this is my neighbor's jade hedge. It's been there for at least 20 years. It is almost completely neglected, but it seems to like that. In the spring it's covered in white flowers. There's a wilderness area behind my house, and there are jade plants back there growing wild that are 3 and 4 feet tall! .

Missy99912, that picture is, truly, amazing; I have never seen a jade hedge!!! Thanks for sharing.

larry

Missy: That is one Awesome Hedge! I have never seen a Jade Hedge either .... how wonderful that must be and you say it blooms too! WOW! That is soooo cool. Here we grow little Jade's as house plants and out there in California you can grow them as large hedges! Really Amazing! I love it!

Missy,
Thanks for the picture; it is breathtaking!

Susan in Minneapolis