i don't think the stem can be rooted. the leaves can be though...just take them off the stem and plant them in the soil. i don't remember if you need to let them dry out a day or two or not. maybe someone else remembers? or, you could search the forums for zz plant - i know that the proper procedure was mentioned in another post recently.
Joclyn and Ed are correct. The stems will not root. This link on UBC will give you more info about the plant which is Zamioculcas zamiifolia and if you click on the link at the bottom of that thread there are basic instructions how to cause the leaflets to root. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=39704
People I know that have rooted a bunch of zz leaves and have stated it can take up to a year to see any growth! Too long for me!
Absolutely correct. The botanists I've talked to say it as extremely slow process. Likely it has to do with the nature of the plant in the wild and appears likely to do with the annual rain and dry seasons.
None at all. Botanist Pete Boyce confirmed it will not as did botanist Dr. Simon Mayo of the Royal Botanic Garden Kew. Strange, but it is just the nature of the species. It only reproduces by seed and by the leaflet falling on the ground. The seed apparently has never been produced in captive growth either. In the wild it isn't even known what the natural pollinator may be but it is suspected to be a species of ant or some other ground dwelling insect. The inflorescence actually bends towards the ground at female anthesis and make contact so some ground dwelling insect can climb on and bring along pollen. Although it has been observed in nature, botanists who have observed it have little idea what makes it "tick". A very strange aroid!
Very interesting the inflorescence leans towards the ground!! I'll have to pay more attention to mine. And now I have the challenge of trying to get seeds!! ; ) Ed
If you follow Julius' suggestions on my website regarding hand pollination, you might be successful. Problem is little is known about the length of time between female and male anthesis. You may have to collect and freeze the pollen and use it on another spadix. Read the article on my site. You can find it right from the homepage!
That is interesting and so clever of the zz to do, smart plant! I'm gonna take a peek at your site as well. Thanks!
A different kind of of "broken stem", but if you buy orchids equally important. So,word of caution. Be careful about buying orchids at discount home improvement stores! Twice recently I've caught the employees of a major discount home improvement chain carefully concealing broken orchid spikes! The method used is to use multiple tie-wraps to tie a broken spike to the support post! So use extreme caution and very carefully examine the entire spike before you lay your money down! That spike will die and you will have wasted your cash! If you want to know the name and locations of the chain and stores involved, send me an email via the UBC system. If you look for more than a couple of tie wraps on the spike, especially a large number around a single spot, DON'T BUY THAT ORCHID!
If the male and female flowers open at different times, and that period of time is lengthy, I waonder how it is pollenated in the wild. I guess that is the $64,000 question. The ants or whatever can't freeze the pollen. Interesting
I realize this thread is now several years old, but I want to mention that I DID successfully root a Zamioculcas zamiifolia (ZZ plant) stem - not a leaf, the whole stem. This came about when a smallish stem of my large plant simply came off in my hand one day. I had no idea if rooting it was possible, but figured I'd give it a try. Good thing I hadn't read this thread first. I stuck it about an inch deep into a small pot full of peat moss and tried to keep it from drying out though sometimes it did get pretty dry. This went on for nearly a year with no apparently new growth, but all the leaves on the stem stayed green and healthy looking, which I took as a promising sign. Suddenly one day a new shoot/stem appeared. After a month or two when the new stem was taller than the first, I decided to pot it up properly in soil, at which time I discovered what it had been up to all that time - it had been growing a bulb-like form about 3/4" in diameter at it's base. So if you're willing to wait a long, long time, you might get it to work as I did.
