We love Grand Canary Island and the wonderful plants there. The plants that we´ve grown come from the Island, but are not listed in our G.C. exotic plantworld book. We aren´t plant experts like most of the members here, so we´re fascinated by all the knowledge shared on the site. Can anyone help us identify the plants in our photos. The plant with the 6cm split leafs grew from seeds we found under trees with purple/white flowers. The two plants with the long 32cm leafs came from a large clustered plant growing on a dead log with greenish orchid-like flowers. We live in Germany and keep the plants inside on the windowsills. With respect and thanks Herman
I've never been to the Canary Islands (although it is on my list of places to go to eventually), but I suspect that it, like so many other tropical and subtropical places frequented by tourists, is home to a fairly diverse garden flora made up of exotic and native plants. The bilobed leaf plant is probably a Bauhinia species (orchid tree), and is probably an exotic. See this link to a Texas A & M University image. The other plant could be a native, perhaps a lily relative; however, there are lots of similar looking plants, so without flowers, it may be difficult to say for sure. There are a number of Dracaena spp. in the region (see this link for a picture of a native "dragon tree"); but this is probably not it, considering you said the flowers looked like an orchid. Good luck!
Its not a Canarian Native I cant tell you what the plant is, but it is definitely not a Canarian native or endemic species and I havent seen it growing in gardens here. Where dod the original seeds come from? If you are interested in Canarian plants have a look Editorial Rueda's Books about Canarian flora, mostly written by David Bramwell, the director of the Botanic Garden on Gran Canaria: http://www.balogh.com/rueda/editorial_rueda.html
gran canaria plant update Just got back from GC and have new photos. Thanks for identifying the orchid tree! We think we found the other plant in question, but still can´t find it in our book. We weren´t able to photograph the original plant, but did collect a flower and a bud/offshoot to photograph later. The flower and bud came from the same orchid like stem, among many, located in the center of an app. 5 foot high plant with 3 foot long thorny leafs. The leafs rotated around the top of a trunk that seemed like it was made up of old removed leafs. Like a date palm trunk? Since our small offspring plants, see first thread photos, were collected years ago from a site that was being destroyed to build a parking lot...we think we may have collected the buds from a fallen plant that was covered and camouflaged by other plants. We are pretty sure the green flowers and buds are the same we saw years ago. My description is not professional but maybe some wise botanical brain can get a clue from the flower and bud.
Alex B. Thank you for the info about books. The offshoots/buds came from the golf course area around Maspalomas and the orchid tree seeds came from the neighborhood around Jumbo Center.
