What in the world did she give me? (plant identification)

About a year and a hlaf ago my mother-in-law bought these sticks. She told me they were tropical plants and all they needed was planted in a pot and they would sprout. Two of the three sticks sprouted, she kept one, and gave me the other. Hers didn't grow as well as mine, I bought mine to work, under flourescent lights it's done very well. I even needed to repot it. I brought it home, repotted it, and forgot about it. It sat on a table between two rather drafty windows and only got watered occasionally. Between that and the cats nibbling on it it's looking a bit sad. There's been no new growth in a month or two but thankfully it's not dead. From what I've read of tropical plants some can be downright picky about growing conditions.

Does anybody have any idea what this might be? I never saw the original packaging, and my mother-in-law doesn't remember what they were called, suffice that they were some kind of tropical plants. My cats have suffered no ill effects from nibbling the leaves for which I'm grateful.

Below are links to pictures, the first one is the plant, the second one I'm holding up a leaf at the usual angle they enjoy when not being neglected, and the third is a close-up shot of the 'stick' it germinated from with the smaller stalk to the left.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/WICKED_ZOEYGIRL/Garden%20and%20Plants/HPIM0285.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/WICKED_ZOEYGIRL/Garden%20and%20Plants/HPIM0286.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v442/WICKED_ZOEYGIRL/Garden%20and%20Plants/HPIM0288.jpg

wicked----

NOT sure, but it could be one of the Cordilyne plants--aka as the "Ti Plant". These are often sold as little "logs" from the Tropical areas. You lay them down (or up???) and they sprout leaves and grow fairly fast into plants.

I know there are green ones and red ones and other varieties of this.....????

Just guessing. Gita

It could possibly be a cordyline of sorm sort: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53151/

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/157043/


or possibly a Dracaena of some sort:

My vote is Draceana

Not sure it is a Dracena! The leaves just do not look like one. Just the shape of them and the striation......??? The only Dracena with leaves similar to this would be the jeanette Craig one, but it's leaves are much darker green and a lot more pointy.

I am sure someone will ID it soon if I am wrong.....

G.

Here's the info in Plant Files for Dracaena Janet Craig with some photo's: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56851/

The leaves also remind me of Ginger: http://images.google.com/images?q=ginger+plant&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

How about a very anemic Corn Plant? That is also a Dracena.
I am saying this as in picture #3, there is the cut off stem that looks similar to this plant's.
The shoot with the leaves could be a root sucker growing up from under the soil.

Just guessing again......Gita

Here's the Corn Plant (Dracaena) that it resembles: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/178847/

Thank you all so much for your replies! I went and looked up pictures of the plants you suggested and I'm feeling strongly that it's a Cordyline. I'm a little sad it doesn't have the bright foliage, but the leaf pattern and size and the bark on the little 'log' matches very well.

All I knew was it was a tropical plant, and the package had three little logs that my mother-in-law immersed in water for a while then planted, and this is what came up.

I'm a little nervous, I brought it in to work today and it's looking even more wilty than before, I don't think it enjoyed the sub-zero temperatures it had to travel through to get here. What I read on the Cordyline says low temps and few waterings will send it dormant, which I think it might have done, I haven't had any new growth since I brought it home a couple of months ago, but I'm hoping to wake it back up now that I've got it back at work under these nice flourescent lights and no drafts!

Now that you've described it more, I'm pretty sure it is a Cordyline, or Hawaiian Ti good luck plant! I do remember back in the 70's when these were being sold as "little logs" that you would just stick down in the soil, or lay sideways on the soil and they would sprout and grow. I've never tried one as a house plant. A lot of folks grow them in the ground as landscape plants here in Florida. In all of your photo's, the soil looks pretty heavy and wet. You might want to re-pot using fresh soil with orchid bark mixed in to help drainage.

I hope you will keep us updated on how your plant is doing! Good luck and Happy Growing!