Plant Identification

[spiekera]

I recieved a few plants from my father in laws house as he is moving and I'd love to know what kind of plant this is and where to put it in my house.

[Ginny42]

It looks like the one I have. :D I pretty sure the name is False Aralia (Diszygotheca Elegantissima). Most web sites say they are picky, but I haven't found it to be true. They like as much indoor light as you can give them. Let them dry out between waterings. They like humidity, but don't like sitting in water. and don't like temps under 60*F. :D

[DandyLioness]

I'm surprised that your father in law hasn't been arrested for his grow-op! ;) :lol:

[spiekera]

:P I found out alot on a few web sites about the plant!!! thanks guys.
I know Dandylioness: I have inheirited a great many plants!!! My mother-in-law is probably spinning in her grave knowing that he's thrown out a great deal of the plants before I could save them.
My place is looking very junglish :mellow:

[MrSeedy]

Maybe my tiny one will look like that in a few years, and I'd agree with Ginny that they're not difficult if you have the right conditions, but if not , "watch out". I may find that mine isn't happy with the light situation, and the other biggest problem with them is that like many plants, they seem to be "spider mite" magnets. It's strange the past few years, but the larger "False Aralias" aren't so common or easy to find in any of the indoor plant sections in any of our local garden centers or nurseries. That's really is a "fine" and beautiful specimen. Years ago I had one that had grown into a small tree right next to my apartment in California, and the interesting thing about them is the way the "mature" leaves change , so that those very serrated edges on the leaflets just become sort of wavy edges and lose the serration entirely , but that's only on much older and large specimens.

[spiekera]

I went and looked at mine closer and it has the mature and immaure leaves. It stand right at 5 ft 6 in. And is very old. I know that my mother in law had it back when my DH and I were dating, that was over 11 years ago!!! boy time flies! <_< se

[OSunshine]

What a beautiful plant. I love all aralia's but, I must confess that the false aralia is one of my favorites. I also found them easy to grow.

[gonzer]

B) Dizygotheca elegantissima ( God, that just rollllllls of my tongue!) is now classified as Schefflera elegantissima. Reason being, when mature plants flower and seed as they do often out here, the similarities between the two is dead-on.

[MrSeedy]

That name change is sort of a surprise, but name changes seem to be the order of the day the past several decades as plants are re-examined for proper classification, and it usually is the flowers more than any other characteristic they might have, that decides their ultimate relationship with other plants!!! One might think the leaves are the deciding factor, or flowers, or roots etc. but ultimately it's the flower structures and seedpods etc, that shows the real relationships of various plants, and now with DNA testing they're really finding out how many errors have been made in classification for years. The genes really tell almost the whole story nowdays.