Episode 229: are these houseplants extinct indoors?

Oplismenus hirtellus 'Variegatus'. Photograph: Diego Delso on Flickr.

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transcript

Episode 229

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Jane Perrone 00:15 Hello and welcome to On The Ledge podcast. I'm your host, Jane Perrone and I've got a bit of a thing about plants! Every time I turn on the mic, I get a feeling of Euphorbia at joining you to talk about plants. And in this week's episode, it's compact and bijou, as the estate agent would say; a short episode where I profile three extinct houseplants. Now, when I say extinct, I don't mean extinct-extinct, as in no longer existing anywhere on the planet, I just mean plants that are still around, but no longer grown in houses. And I don't actually have any scientific proof that no single dwelling on the whole of this planet has one of these plants growing, and maybe you can prove me wrong, but they seem to have completely dropped out of the palette of plants that we use in our homes. But before that, this quick announcement about my Hampton Court Palace live podcast recording on the evening of Friday, the eighth of July 2022. Congratulations go to Emily Singer-Ripley who won a pair of tickets to the show in the prize draw I held on Instagram. Looking forward to meeting you, Emily! And I mentioned a special guest - well, I can now announce that I'm going to be joined by the delightful Gynelle Lyon of cactus shop, Prick, to talk all things houseplants. I think we're going to have a blast. So check out the show notes for details about how to get your tickets to the Flowers After Hours event at Hampton Court. We will be on stage in the Marketplace Theatre at 9pm.

Thanks also to Will for becoming a Ledge End this week. I really appreciate everyone who makes a regular financial donation to the show, but I know that's not possible for everybody. And a shout-out to one particular patron, there may be others of you in this boat, who have had to stop their patronage because they need to save up money to move somewhere safer because they live in the US. So yeah, I feel you, I really feel you and, of course, you have to prioritise your own safety and I totally understand that if you are in that camp and you can no longer donate to Patreon.

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Jane Perrone 02:07 How would you like to own a houseplant that smells of roast beef crisps when you give it a squeeze? Well, who wouldn't? Perhaps that's just me? But the first extinct houseplant that I'm going to talk about offers just that kind of scent experience for your nose! Its scientific name is Glechoma hederacea. Now, scientific Latin fans may detect from that second part of the name, hederacea, that this plant looks a little bit like Hedera helix, the English Ivy, and indeed, this plant is often commonly known as Ground Ivy.

It's native to pretty much the whole of Europe, stretching into Russia, and it has become naturalised in large parts of North America and some parts of South America and, indeed, is a bit of an invasive weed there. It's a member of the mint family, so you may recognise the square stems and the little purple flowers, which look a bit like mint flowers. The leaves are attractive. They're round, scalloped, heart-shaped and usually creeping along the ground, hence one of its other common names, Creeping Charlie, although, as is often the case, that name is also used for a few other plants, some of which are houseplants including Pilea nummulariifolia. How do I know this used to be grown as a houseplant? Well, I'm referring back, she says flicking through the pages to the old favourite, The Houseplant Expert, by Dr. David Hessayon. I've also seen it in quite a few other houseplant books of the period. Just trying to find the page now . . . Ficus, no . . . here we go . . . and when I look it up in this book, it's usually almost always the variegated form of Glechoma hederacea that we're seeing as a houseplant, which has got creamy margins to the edges of the leaves.

The 'Gold-plated Houseplant Expert' does note that hardly any houseplant suppliers in Britain offer it for sale or have even heard of it, so even back then, perhaps it wasn't that popular, but I have looked at various other books and found mentions of it, so it clearly was being grown indoors. A couple more interesting things about Glechoma hederacea. As I said, roast beef crisps are the smell that I get off the leaves, and, indeed, people have used this plant for foraging and have used the leaves to make sauce to go with roast beef! And one of its names is Ale Hoof, or Gill Over The Ground, and it was used in Saxon times for brewing ale in the period before people started using hops for making ale into beer. And, in fact, it's got a long history of use in traditional medicine as well and if you go into the old herbalist books, like Gerard's Herbal, it's recommended for lots of different things.

As always, I'll give my usual health warning: do not use this without seeking medical advice. I don't think there's been a huge amount of scientific research into its effect as a foodstuff, or a medicine for humans, so as always, I would advise caution and research and getting advice before you start filling your belly with any Glechoma hederacea, but as a houseplant, well, does it have some merits? As a European native, it's a bit like Hedera helix when you're dealing with it as an indoor plant. In these cool conditions, it's not going to like being blasted by your heating. So ideally, an unheated room, or a cool porch, or somewhere where it can live a relatively unheated life. I did find it in one houseplant book listed as a suitable plant to put in a terrarium! That book came out in 1997.

That kind of shocked me because this plant is fast-growing and it would very, very quickly take over a terrarium, so I'm not quite sure where that idea came from. Although, interestingly, I saw somebody on Facebook the other day who had a terrarium glass cabinet set up, and they'd found a plant in a crack in the paving outside and they put it in their terrarium, and lo and behold, I was able to tell them that that plant was Geranium robertianum, also known as Herb Robert, which is a very common weed around Europe and parts of Asia. So I guess the only limitations we're putting on what we grow indoors are our own conceptions, in many ways. It's worth saying that in North America, as I say, this plant is an invasive. So again, perhaps for the North Americans listening, it's best for this plant to remain back in the past as a houseplant, because the trouble is, people start growing stuff and then chucking it away when they've got fed up with it and this plant, being rather clever at keeping itself alive, will then start colonising the ground.

So if you're in warmer climates and you do have this plant, it is worth being careful with how you treat it, but it is worth saying the variegated form, which is usually what's grown as a houseplant, is probably a bit less virulent than the plain green one. Having searched around, it does come up for sale occasionally. I have seen it on various American nursery websites, the variegated form I mean, and in the UK as well. J Parker's who are a famous plant and bulb company, they certainly have sold it in the past as a basket plant, and here in the UK, where it's obviously a wild, native plant, it's sometimes sold by companies on the basis that it provides excellent early nectar and pollen for pollinators because those purple flowers come early in the year and, number two, is a member of the poaceae family.

Now, there's not many houseplants that come from that plant family but this is one of them, Oplismenus hirtellus, sometimes known as basket grass. But if you look at the variegated form, well, you'll probably think that it is a Tradescantia because it has that same Tradescantia look, trailing stems with stripey cream and green leaves on it that sometimes have a tinge of pink. Unlike Glechoma hederacea, the Ground Ivy, this one is native to tropical and sub-tropical countries all across the southern hemisphere and yet again, this is causing a problem in North America, this plant is an invasive. Again, possibly a reason that we aren't growing it. The Reader's Digest book, 'Success With Houseplants', which I think came out in '79, suggests growing these plants in small hanging baskets and, just like its doppelganger, the Tradescantia, it's a kind of a short-lived perennial, so, after a while, starts to look a bit, as I would say in my household, 'rampety' - no idea if that's a real word!? - so then you would just take some cuttings and replace it because if this plant isn't getting enough light, it will do exactly like a Tradescantia and become rather leggy. So why did we stop growing Oplismenus hirtellus as a houseplant? Well, I haven't really got to the bottom of that one. Perhaps Tradescantias just took over as more popular and the wheel of fashion just turned away from this plant, or maybe just people didn't like the name Oplismenus. One other source, the Amateur Gardening in 1970 recommended planting a table bowl display with Oplismenus arrayed around the edge of the bowl trailing over which sounds rather attractive.

Personally, I've always wondered whether this plant, along with Tradescantias, would make a great specimen for a green wall. I can't see why it wouldn't work really well. It would cover loads of space and offer great texture. If I can get hold of Oplismenus, maybe I should give it a go? And the final plant in my trio of extinct houseplants is from the liliacea family, the lily family, and its Ophiopogon. Sounds like a alien from the Star Trek universe, but no, it is commonly known as Lily Turf, or Mondo Grass or Snake Beard, a strappy grassy plant with stripy, creamy leaves and white flowers, most often found in the, you guessed it, variegated form, which has got cream-striped leaves! You'll still find this commonly sold as an outside nursery plant, but nobody seems to be growing it indoors any more. Again, it's listed in quite a few of the houseplant books I've got, that range from the 70s to the 90s, but just doesn't seem to be offered up any more as a houseplant. There are a few different species of Ophiopogon. The one we're talking about, that is grown indoors, or was grown indoors, is Ophiopogon jaburan.

Whereas the other two species we've talked about are quite wide in their native distribution, this one is just native to Korea and Japan. The flowers remind me rather of Sansevieria flowers, those, kind of, white spikes clustered with tubular flowers. Sadly, no scent in this case though, and, like the spider plants, there are a number of different types of variegated cultivars you can get with different combinations of cream and green. And, you guessed it, it's another plant that likes cool conditions. I think we're establishing a theme here! Perhaps central heating and wanting to keep our homes at a steady 20 degrees centigrade has meant that these kinds of plants just aren't suitable for us any more? But, like the others we've mentioned, this one likes to be kept cool, needs plenty of light, but not bright direct sunlight in the middle of summer. So if you do have an unheated space, this might be a good one to choose. I think it's interesting to see how these houseplants which are cooler temperature plants have definitely lost traction in the home. Another one I can think of would be Fatsia japonica, the false castor oil plant, with those beautiful, big, glossy palmate leaves looks incredible in the house. But actually, most of us have homes that are too warm.

Perhaps as climate change begins to force us to put our thermostats down, some of these plants will be coming back into circulation? I don't know. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on these three 'extinct' in inverted commas houseplants. Have you grown them? Have you seen them anywhere inside? And what other plants do you think we should get back into our homes that we used to grow in the past? Do check out the show notes for some links to pictures of the three plants if you can't visualise them. And as ever, I'd love to hear from you about the new plants that you're getting excited about or perhaps the old ones that have been old faithfuls for you for many years.

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Jane Perrone 15:01 That's all for this week's show! I'm keeping it short and sweet this week. I will be back next Friday but until then enjoy your houseplants, treasure them and hopefully they'll keep you on an even keel! Bye!

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Jane Perrone 15:26 The music you heard in this episode was Roll Jordan Roll, by The Joy Drops, The Road We Used To Travel When We Were Young, by Komiku, and Whistle, by Benjamin Banger. All tracks are Licenced under Creative Commons. Visit the show notes for details.

Not all houseplants stay the course: I take a look at three species that seem to have completely dropped out of the palette of plants we grow indoors.

Check out the show notes below as you listen…

This week I am profiling three species that are still going strong in the wild and in gardens, but do not seem to be grown indoors any more.

Variegated ground ivy. Photograph: Patrick Standish on Flickr.

Glechoma hederacea

• Native to Europe, naturalised in other parts of the world, particularly North America.

• It is a member of the mint family - Lamiaceae - it has ‘square’ - four sided - stems.

• Ground ivy, alehoof, gill-over-the-ground and creeping charlie are some of its common names (although creeping charlie is also a name for Pilea nummulariifolia).

• It was used in the ale brewing process in Saxon times (before hops was used).

• It’s popular with foragers, is ascribed many uses in traditional medicine and the leaves when crushed smell of roast beef crisps!

• The variegated form (pictured left) is usually the one grown as a houseplant.

• It’s usually suggested for growing in hanging baskets, although one book suggested it as a plant for terrariums.

• It’s still sometimes sold as a plant for gardens or for wildlife - the purple flowers provide early pollen and nectar for pollinators.

The plain green Oplisemnus has become invasive in some parts of the world, particularly North America. Photograph: Forest and Kim Starr on Flickr.

Oplismenus hirtellus

• This species has a huge range across the southern hemisphere in subtropical and tropical climes.

• The variegated forms (pictured at the top) are usually traditionally chosen as houseplants.

• It is an invasive species in some parts of the world.

• This plant looks very similar to Tradescantia but is not closely related, as this is a member of the Poaceae while Tradescantia is in the Commelinaceae family.

• Like Tradescantia it gets leggy over time, especially if denied light, so propagate often to rejuvenate your plant.

• This species gets a mention in many of the houseplant books I have from the 1970s and 1980s but then seems to have died out completely as an indoor plant after that. It is usually suggested as a trailing plant or hanging basket specimen.

Ophiopogon jaburan. Photograph: 阿橋 HQ on Flickr.

Ophiopogon jaburan

• This species is native to Korea and Japan and is a member of the Lily family.

• It has several common names including lilyturf and snakes beard. This species and several others in the genus are still popular garden plants.

• The flowers look rather like Sansevieria flowers but are unscented.

• As a houseplant, it prefers cool conditions, so would be ideal for a colder house or an unheated space.

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CREDITS

This week's show featured the tracks Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops, The Road We Use To Travel When We Were Kids by Komiku and and Whistle by BenJamin Banger (@benjaminbanger on Insta; website benjaminbanger.com).