Plants for a Window Garden

Plants for a Window Garden * Rev. Anselm M. Keefe, St. Norbert College, West De Pere, Wisconsin Selected plants for specific demonstrations in botany and plant ecology can be grown on laboratory window shelves with minimal expenditure of time and money, as long as normal care is taken to provide light, moisture, nutrition and to avoid infestation. The list of shade- loving plants is encouragingly long. This talk was given to the AIBS in Boulder, Colorado, August, 1964. Introduction As an example of what can be done in a north-facing laboratory, you will please note If you were ushered into our botany labo- that under each set of windows there is a row ratory, your first observation, like that of Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/27/2/118/21182/4440854.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 of shallow supply cupboards for all sorts of many before you, might well be: "What on occasionally used dry or preserved materials, earth is all this junk for?" The answer goes and extra laboratory equipment (Fig. 1). back a few years to the morning shortly after Resting on these are four or five-foot galva- World War It when we were snipping differ- nized iron pans, 4" deep and 12" wide. These ent pollen-bearing anthers into a 12%,osugar simplify watering problems and maintain ade- solution in the hope of showing the next day's quate humidity especially during the winter lab section the germination of pollen tubes. months when the heat is on. Each pan is Watching the process was a visiting agent for marked with a red "D" for dry, a blue "M" a prominent scientific supply house. "What for moist, or a purple "W" for wet indi- are you doing?" he asked. We and explained, cating whether the plant pots held there con- evoked another question: "Do you mean that tain xerophytes, mesophytes, or hydrophytes. you give your botany students live materials Due to the lack of direct sunlight (except to work on?" Assured that we cut our use of in the three east windows in the early morn- fixed materials to the absolute minimum, and ings), we have had to concentrate on plants that we used living materials whenever possi- such as those the foresters and ecologists call ble, since we had a quaint belief that we were ."tolerant,"which thrive in more or less shady teaching one of the life sciences, he shook his conditions. By a process of elimination, we head and remarked: "All we ever had when have reduced our plant population to a mini- I took biology laboratory was a microscope, mum of such tolerant genera and species. a lab manual, I and a box of slides. If had Suggestions for this process came from the been given live materials to work on when I was a student in biology, I probably would not have majored in chemistry." This incident reinforced conclusions we ar- rived at during three and one-half war years in the lush green jungles of northern Aus- tralia, Papua, and the Philippine Islands. The profusion of living plants so readily available there might spark some interest in our stu- .. t : | ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~J~ ~. ~.I : dents if such plants could be grown in our laboratory. The research greenhouse at our school is so far from our present botany laboratory and our northern Wisconsin winters are so unpre- dictable, we were forced to experiment with /f . ................ whatever forms could be grown on the window ledges of the laboratory. This room serves not only for general botany, but in al- ternating years for plant taxonomy, dendr- ology, ecology, and economic botany. 118 PLANTSFOR A WINDOW GARDEN 119 most unusual places. Gannon's, "Decorating with House Plants," was very helpful. An old book, datingback to 1861, E. J. Lowe's, "BeautifulLeaved Plants,"published in Lon- don, suggestedmany others. Pteridophytes We have found that old, or cracked,-and thereforeuseless aquaria-make excellentvi- variafor growingliverworts and ferns through- out the year. All one needs besides appropri- ::<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.g........ ate soils, is plate glass covers, which can be ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.....::....... :\:::::::.:. ... R... secured from glaziers who are only too glad Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/27/2/118/21182/4440854.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 to cut them to size out of broken store windows Of course, any florist can supply the old- : : * fashionedBoston fern, (Nephrolepisspecies) * ::... ..* .. .. .. .. .. .. .. which will grow every contentedly in the . ;..... .... .::. wateringpans with other plants. Polystichum :::.:..^ .... ...x- braunii (Braun's holly fern) thrives in the northernmostcounties of Wisconsin, as well tropicals, it knows no seasonal cycles of as in our vivarium. It producesplentiful sup- growth. Leaves are constantly drying up and plies of spore-bearingleaves for macroscopic falling off even as they are being replaced. study, and the microscopic investigationof Janitors have no scientific appreciation for it. the sori with their indusia and spore-loaded We have grown Cyperus alternifolius, a real capsules. hydrophyte that will grow in water, but it Gymnosperms proved to be easy picking for the wooly aphis. Northern conifers, as may well be im- With all the dwarf palms one sees in flo- agined,do not thrive in the laboratory. With rist shops we have had poor success. The tropicaltypes, however, it is a differentmat- coconut (Cocos nucifera), however, is worth ter. For several years we have had both experimenting with. A live coconut from Tur- Podocarpus macrophylla and Araucaria ex- tox was soaked in warm water for two weeks, celsa (Norfolk Island Pine) both thrivingin then partially buried in moist vermiculite. the laboratory, the latter demanding more Six months later the first roots broke through and more room as it progressedfrom large to largerpots. In our library aquarium we grow only Valisneria(Tape or Eel Grass) and a male species of Anacharis canadensis, which does yeoman's duty in the study of the cell, os- mosis, gas elimination,and photo-synthesis. The screw pines are now representedonly by Pandanus veitchii, a clean little slow- grower with marked white and green longi- tudinalstriping (Fig. 2). We used to support a large Pandanus sandersii, with brilliant yel- low and green stripesand vicious saw-toothed leaves. It finally outgrew its usefulness and we haven'tgot aroundto replacingit. Monocots The onlytropical grass we haveis a Bambusa nana, the dwarf bamboo (Fig. 3). It is a messy plant to have around,since, like most 120 THE AMERICANBIOLOGY TEACHER the husk. Shortly afterwards the small pri- When it gets pot-bound it starts to show its mary leaves appeared. By the end of summer calla-like green flowers, excellent examples the first fan leaf appeared. It is now producing of the spathe and spadix structure. They its seventh leaf. As may be suspected, it takes are much easier to grow than Anthuriums pride of place as "eye wash" for transient with which we have had no luck at all. visitors, most of whom have never seen a When we come to the Dieffenbachias we coconut tree, much less one in the process of are off to the races (Fig. 4). They grow becoming. In the tropics the winds keep the prodigiously in the lab and elsewhere. We leaves well broken into feathery strips, one have seen one that was fifteen feet tall in a to each parallel vein. Lacking this climato- grocery store, but with 12 feet of naked stalk, logical assistance, we have to give the plant it was hardly the kind of decoration one leaves manual assistance to separate the seg- would care to have in a home, office, or lab- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/27/2/118/21182/4440854.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 ments,-not of course, because it is neces- oratory. Dieffenbachias come in more than sary, but for the esthetics of the thing. We 40 different varieties. The commonest are feel, however, that keeping the leaves seg- D. picta and D. seguine, but there are in- mented cuts down the accumulation of labo- numerable variations. They well deserve their ratory dust on the leaves. West Indies name of "dumb cane," said to be caused by uninstructed people chewing Arums the stalks and suffering subsequent throat Probably no group of indoor plants has a paralysis for several days. Satisfactory as more diverse and varied number of species these plants are in the lab, they must be than the Araceae. This needs no further proof handled with care. As the stalk elongates, it than a look at the average interior decorator's is usual to cut off the leafy top and re-root offerings. We have found the Aglaonemas, it in water and then cut up the rest of the DiefJenbachias, Monsteras, Philodendrons, stalk into three- or four-node lengths. In Scindapsus, and Syngoniums equally cooper- water they will root at the lower nodes, and ative as long as they have plenty of water. start leaves at the topmost. The basal roots They are all hydrophytes, liking a damp soil, of the old plant will generally put out coppice and one can overwater with no fear of tem- growth of one or more shoots. Handling the peramental results. The Monsteras, Philoden- cuttings should be done with care. The stalk drons, and Scindapsus are climbers or trailers. cells are loaded with toxic crystals of cal- Monstera in the wild often reaches to the cium oxalate. They have a numbing effect on top of 100 ft coconut palms, forming a leafy the skin unless one uses rubber gloves. This retreat much favored by various members of is definitely not a plant for the home, espe- the parrot family, and, during the war, by snipers.

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