I am not sure exactly what biome/s this plant I am growing is found in.
The plant I am growing is Tabernaemontana orientalis.
I know it is native to Northern Queensland, Australia which is the warmest part of Australia. The average winter minimum temperature is very high there compared to anywhere else in Aus.
Ive heard this plant can be found growing along the edges of tropical rainforests and grows in sand dunes not far from the ocean.
So is it safe to say it probably isn't a tropical rainforest plant? I mean temperature wise it would be but it may require more light to grow?
Its interesting how people use footcandles to determine how much minimum light a house plant needs to grow. I know Aspidistra elatior (Cast Iron) can tolerate really low levels.
What I am wondering is if I need high light for this species?
It is closely related to Tabernanthe iboga which is a rainforest plant but im thinking Tabernaemontana orientalis needs higher light levels?
from http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_ ... orientalis (http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=Tabernaemontana_orientalis) :
"Specimens growing in too bright light tend to have yellowy foliage, while as an understory plant in the forest it has darker green leaves"
however, the pictogram just above this indicates that this plant grows in full sun or partial shade. Considering that most understory plants in the rainforest are rather of the partial to full shade variety, i reckon that t. orientalis probably does generally grow in clearings, sides of cliffs, etc, and therefore would prefer part shade and might suffer significantly in an open area.
Actually it grows in sand dunes not very far from the ocean.
I heard it grows on the edges of rainforests, while Tabernaemontana pandacquai is a rainforest plant.
They are separate species and should not be used synonomously.
It seems to me that it is slow growing.
how old is your plant and how big is it? What kind of/how much light does it get? I take it it's indoors now because Minnesota would be too cold for it to be outside right now. Are you gonna place it outside in the summer? If so, in full sun, part or full shade?
I can send you a picture sometime if you have email. The images are too large to post on here.
I have two plants right now.
One of them is growing faster now but initially it was slower than my other one.
The fast one has the second set of true leaves almost opened. The leaves are only like 1- 1.5 inches long.
My other one has only 1 set of true leaves and it almost looks like it isn't going to develop any more, but it probably will it is just slow.
I said before it took like a month or so for the true leaves to even fully develop. This was after i used a safety pin and carefully freed the cotyledons.
There were times when youd look and wonder if anything is going to happen.
Its easy to kill plants when they are slow growing like this such as insects, disease, overwatering..etc.
I think older plants can withstand alot more.
Tabernanthe iboga has this same unusual characteristic of keeping the seed coat on the stem when they germinate as well. Im not sure if they are slow growers.
I posted pictures on another thread.
http://users.lycaeum.org/~mulga/iboga/orient.htm (http://users.lycaeum.org/~mulga/iboga/orient.htm)
QuoteI know it is native to Northern Queensland, Australia which is the warmest part of Australia. The average winter minimum temperature is very high there compared to anywhere else in Aus.
its warm. i live there
but its not the hottest part! its actually very mild
moderated by rainfall and the influence of the sea
summer temps are noirmally 28-32C day and night over summer
winters rarely drop below 10C minimum but they do drop into the teens
Foresters have told me planst like Teak dont grow as well in cairns as they do in hawaii for example because the temperature in cairns is less stable, and cooler in winter.
If you go inland and across the top end through the NT and into NW westerern Australia - now thats the hottest parts of australia!
Back to T orientalis
most ive seen are actually in suburbia!
sandy beachside suburbs of cairns
sprouting under a frangipani or other tree, dropped by birds
I wouldnt listen to information on top tropicals website.
They are a good company but they have it wrong.
Tabernaemontana orientalis and Tabernaemontana pandaquai arn't synonyms, they are distinct species both ecologically, morphologically and chemically.
I meant warmest part of Australia, not hottest part.
Phoenix, Arizona in the US one could argue is hotter than San Diego, California but where do you think is frost more of a problem?
Probably Phoenix, Arizona since it is inland.
I meant warm as in it doesn't have a low winter minimum compared to other parts of OZ.
Im sure it doesnt like temps below 50 F which tend to be a problem in Northern Florida where I used to live.
There were several nights when it was 38, and onetime it got down to 20 F.
It only last like a few hours at 20, but thats cold enough to kill alot of tropicals.
Below 60 is pushin it