Author Archives: Zac

About Zac

Zac joined the museum in January after returning to Houston from a stint studying plants in Hawaii. He is the full-time horticulturist for the Cockrell Butterfly Center, and is in charge of daily maintenance and design for the rainforest exhibit. Zac specializes in tropical plants, particularly epiphytes, and his duties in the rainforest range from feeding all of the plants and animals to hand pollinating some of the tropical fruits, such as vanilla and cacao.

Stage-five clingers: Learn to grow epiphytes with Zac Saturday, March 24

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As the horticulturist for the Cockrell Butterfly Center conservatory, I get asked a plethora of gardening questions. The most frequently asked question (other than “How’s Lois?”) has got to be “How do you get your orchids to grow on trees?”

Orchid Show at HMNS!

I explain to visitors that most orchids are epiphytic, which means that they grow on the trunk and branches of larger trees. To do this, they have developed ingenious ways to obtain water and nutrients without the need of soil. Not to be confused with parasites, epiphytes take nothing from the tree they attach themselves to. Notable examples include ferns, orchids and bromeliads, but the most familiar epiphyte to people here in the south is a wispy bromeliad by the name of Spanish moss.

There seems to be a common misconception that growing orchids is reserved for only the most experienced gardeners, but from my experience, this is not always the case. In fact, orchids seem to thrive on neglect; the most common cause of orchid death is over-watering.

epiphyte orchid

To learn more tips and tricks for epiphyte growing, join me for the HMNS adult education class How to Grow Orchids, Bromeliads and Other “Air Plants”  from 9 to 11 a.m. this Saturday the 24th in the Cockrell Butterfly Center. The class includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the Butterfly Center, followed by a hands-on class where attendees will learn how to propagate, divide, mount and fertilize their own epiphytes. And finally, everyone goes home with their very own orchid to start (or add to) their collection!

Plants of the Cockrell Butterfly Center: Guaiacum officinale

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Our winner this month was Corrie Kennelly! She received 2 tickets to our Cockrell Butterfly Center for correctly giving us the scientific name of the plant pictured above, which happens to also be the national flower of Jamaica.

The correct scientific name was Guaiacum officinale.

Guaiacum officinale is a very slow growing flowering tree in the family Zygophyllaceae. It is native to South America and the Caribbean where it is now on the endangered species list due to overexploitation of its miraculous wood, which is commonly known as Lignum vitae.

Wood Of Life

Lignum vitae is Latin for “wood of life” and after learning more about this versatile trade wood it is easy to see where it got its name. Not only does the resin of the wood contain medicinal qualities that are used to treat everything from arthritis to venereal disease to sore throat, its wood is the strongest and densest wood in the world, so dense in fact that it will sink immediately when placed in water.

Due to its strength and weight, Lignum vitae wood has been used to make British police batons, croquet mallets, and cricket bails. Also, thanks to its high concentration of resin the wood is very resistant to insects and rot, which makes it a great candidate for use at sea as deadeyes on many sailing vessels including the USS Constitution.

Until the 1960’s, and the invention of sealed metal bearings, Lignum vitae was the primary wood used for shaft bearings in propellers of ships. In fact, the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, main strut bearings were Lignum vitae.

If all of its many uses don’t make it cool enough; in The Once and Future King, T.H. White’s version of the Arthur legend, Merlin’s wand was made of Lignum vitae!

To see the national flower of Jamaica and many other, stop by the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science!

Do You Know Plants?

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This is a question I recently posed to my followers on twitter.


Plant nerds do you know your stuff? One ticket to the butterfly center goes to 1st to give Latin name for this plant! http://t.co/3hJOWAb
May 19, 2011 12:14 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@hortzac
Zac Stayton

And here’s the photo:

Can you name this plant?

Well apparently someone does!

Congratulations to @faziarizvi for giving us the correct Latin name of the plant above, and winning a ticket to the butterfly center!

The correct answer is Strophanthus preussii, which are scandent shrubs native to tropical West Africa.  Its name means “twisted cord flower,” and it’s easy to see why it’s so named; the tips of the petals extend and twist to form long purple cords that can trail over a foot below the flower. Strophanthus is in the Apocynaceae family which contains better known plants such as Oleander and Asian Jasmine.

Come see this plant, now blooming, at the Cockrell Butterfly Center, and stay tuned for the next installment of “Do You Know Plants?”, and your chance to win more cool prizes.

Corpse Flower Lois Update – The Photosynthetic Phase

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A lot has happened since we last updated everyone on Corpse Flower Lois, Houston’s beloved Amorphophallus titanum.

Corpse Flower Lois - Repotted!
Repotting Lois

Last time most of you saw her (August 19, 2010) she was being weighed, inspected, re-potted and finally left to go through her dormancy in peace in our greenhouses. We anticipated the dormancy to last about three months before she would put up a new leaf and go into a photosynthetic phase, and in a move very uncharacteristic of our smelly diva, she came out of dormancy right on cue.

In mid November 2010, almost exactly three months after she shed her nearly six foot inflorescence, a new bud began to grow very rapidly from the underground tuber. Just like in the reproductive phase, as the leaf begins to form it is covered by two very large bracts to protect the immature new growth. By the November 16 the bud was already 34” tall and growing over an inch a day. On the 29 of that month the bracts completely fell back to reveal a single 58.5” leaf.

The picture below shows Lois as she looks now, over the past five months the leaf has continued to grow and reached a maximum height of 68”.

Lois Update! [Corpse Flower]
Lois
View more photos here

The purpose of this massive leaf is to harness as much energy as possible from the sun during this photosynthetic period and restore that energy as mass in the underground tuber. (Which decreased in size by about 25% after putting up the famous 2010 inflorescence.)

We expect her photosynthetic phase is nearing its end and we will begin to see the massive leaf decline in the months to come. After the decline we expect another three month dormancy period, followed by another photosynthetic period. This cycle will continue until the tuber regains enough mass to support another stinky inflorescence.

Until then we will try to keep you up to date with all of Lois’ progress, and the progress of our other adolescent Amorphophallus titanum that has yet to be named.