I found this plant on a beach. Its been growing in sand for the past few weeks with daily watering. The stem seems to be a mix of red, brown, and green and one of the leafs on one of the 2 plants in the pictures matches the stem color (strange?) the rest are green. That one leaf has always been that color and appears healthy. Hopefully this information helps. Thanks for any help you can give me in IDing this plant!
Bump Please help. These 2 plants has a great personal value to me and I really want to know how to care for them and what they will turn out to be.
Ditto to Laticauda's sentiment. Iceman, I am trying my best to ID your plant! Thought that it might be a broad-leaved sea purslane of some kind, but no. The Forum members are the greatest---I know that your plant will be named! Ya gotta believe! Any other info you could give us? Such as if it was growing alone or in a group---any flowers? I'm assuming a salt-water beach...?
Thanks so much to both of you. It is a salt water beach. The Gulf of Mexico in Grand Isle, LA to be exact. I found it in the dry, hot sand furthest away from the Gulf. There are no flowers yet but from its seems to me like a very young plant. Its been growing rapidly and as it gets taller the lower leaves die and new ones are formed above it. the two plants I have pictured were growing together side-by-side but were fairly isolated from other plant life. I didn't really pay attention to the types of plants closest to it nor if there were any more of this plant around. There is a very slight chance that the plant was imported because every now and then the government imports plants that are good for preventing erosion but this definitely does not resemble what is typically brought in. Thanks again!
Sorry, I don't know what it is either, but just to note, you say "I found it in the dry, hot sand furthest away from the Gulf", yet the plants you brought back are in very wet mud - that's conditions which they aren't going to like, if it is something adapted to dry sand!
Well I took the sand from the beach, so it is sand they are in. I had just watered it so that's why it looks so wet. It takes a while for the water to sink to the bottom.
That is definitely close. There's only one difference. My plant's stem is more like that of a flower (its soft and slightly flexible). Its not wooden as the on in your picture is. However, perhaps it is transforming into a wooden stem? its starting to look like one. I apologize if I sound completely ignorant. I know very little about plants. The USDA states that the Scaevola coriacea is only present in Hawaii... Perhaps someone could shed some light on this puzzling scenario??
Maybe Scaevola plumieri then? Compare http://raglandco.com/Images/plants/scaevola_plumieri3_web.jpg Scaevola plumieri is native in LA: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SCPL&photoID=scpl_004_ahp.tif
