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tropicbreezent

Pothos, "The Pretender"

tropicbreezent
11 years ago

* Posted by hopefulauthor z5IL (hopefulauthor@sbcglobal.net) on

Sun, Oct 14, 12 at 11:14

--Tropic, if you have more pics to share, can you post them? Yours and those in the wild.--

(Better late than never.) I've pulled out some photos of Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aurum) in the garden, plus took a few more. They give an idea of the stages they go through and what they look like at maturity.

A young plant starting out on its journey upwards.

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Once they're up off they ground they fill out.

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A lot of large vines going up with more new ones starting out.

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These are 18 to 20 metres up in the trees.

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This palm is 15+ metres tall. One advantage palms have is that their fronds will eventually drop. Golden Pothos that attaches to the frond will end up falling away with it.

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Climbed up on the shed roof to get this photo.

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Up on the same shed, this Pothos is racing the Syngonium to get to the top.

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It's a bit difficult to get a proper perspective on the size of the leaves when they're so high up in the trees. Here's one that fell down, that's a standard chair for comparison. Bear in mind that was only a tiny piece of the plant that fell.

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Comments (15)

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    That is soooo cooool! Thanks for doing this, tropic! If I ever win the lottery, I want to visit your yard, that's amazing. I feel kind of sad for the ones stuck in your homes but grateful to them for allowing us to have a little piece of a jungle in our non-tropical homes. Kind of mind-blowing that they would put up with it at all.

    Do the vines in situ have much roots in the soil at the base? I've wondered about using a basket instead of a pot for some of these epiphytic vines...

  • miketropic
    11 years ago

    so the vines never choke the tree or harm it at all just use it for a ladder. very neat thanks for the pics

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Oops, "stuck in your homes" should be "our" homes.

  • eclayne
    11 years ago

    Great shots Tropic and that last scale shot changed everything. I had no idea. Is that a stone/gravel path you built in the 3rd photo?

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Totally agree, eclayne. Without that chair, I didn't at ALL realize what I was looking at. More wow!

  • grabmebymyhandle
    11 years ago

    I really enjoy these pics as well, i wonder how much it would cost to transplant a family of 4 from the US to there...

  • tropicbreezent
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Purple, the roots ends are always in the soil (except while they're dangling their way down), but they stay in the leaf litter on the surface, not deep down.

    Mike, I have a couple of very tall palms that were over taken by the vines, as in right through the canopy/crown, and they're dead. But I don't know whether that can be directly attributed to the vines. The huge trees seem okay, but smaller ones seem to succumb more quickly to Syngonium rather than to the Golden Pothos.

    Eclayne, those are actually leaves. I always leave a lot of leaf litter to stop erosion from the heavy wet season rains.

    Grab, if you can get a company to sponsor you then you're in for a very cheap transit. We're going through a mining boom with businesses often having difficulty finding staff. How it pans out into the future depends if the Chinese and Indians can keep up their momentum.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    "they stay in the leaf litter on the surface, not deep down"

    I usually find the same thing with the tiny ones in captivity, the roots rarely colonize the depths of a bigger pot.

  • jane__ny
    11 years ago

    I live in Florida and Pothos climb up oak trees. They get huge and I have been told they will strangle the trees. Here's a shot of an oak in our back yard. It is not a good shot, but you can see the large, green pothos leaves up the tree. I now cut them from the base, but they are very difficult to rid of and have become pests.

    I have also grown them as house plants and had no idea how aggressive and large they become.

    Jane

  • garyfla_gw
    11 years ago

    Hi
    I find it interesting that if the vine falls back to the ground ,it will revert to making small leaves again.
    Saw them growing wild in Costa Rica with lianas as big as my leg was tempted to swing on them ala "tarzan" lol
    Various types of epiphytes were living on them . Have tried many times to duplicate this in my shadehouse but they croak gary

  • grabmebymyhandle
    11 years ago

    fun!

  • tropicbreezent
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Gary, you tried to replicate what? Growing them in your shade house, swinging from the vines and they broke and croaked?

  • garyfla_gw
    11 years ago

    Hi
    Glad you asked!! lol In several areas of lowland rainforest there were several types of epiphytes growing on the lianas. Most notable were ferns and Broms. In spite of pothos growing like a weed for me withstems approaching arm size the epis. refuse though they grow in pots, baskets with no problem. Any hints on how to establish them?? gary

  • garyfla_gw
    11 years ago

    Jim
    Hard freeze is about the only thing that will stop pothos or most of the philo family lol growing on a tree is probably the best way. I erred in allowing it to attach to the houseWhat a nightmare to remove !! I confine it to the shadehouse where I experiment with itlol gary

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