Can any of you help me with the identification of 2 plants that are in my garden. It would be great if somebody could help with tips on its maintenance as well.
Beaucarnea recurvata. Sometimes listed as a Nolina but the genus Beaucarnea differs in the bottle-shaped trunk and winged fruit. Dracaena reflexa 'Song of India' Sometimes listed as Pleomele but that genus is synonymous with Dracaena. Both are very common in cultivation. A Google search will reveal plenty of info on their care.
You can quote me on it. "Pleomele has been "sunk" into Dracaena" Shortly Pleomele will officially be a subgenus under Dracaena. The type species for the subgenus is Dracaena fragrans and includes over 60 species throughout most of the Old World tropics.
could the first one maybe be a pregnant onion (ornithogalum longibracteatum)? ...would explain its wilt and also the layered look to its trunk? maybe?
The bulb doesn't have the translucent look of pregnant onion, Ornithogalum caudatum, but looks woody. Has it ever produced bulbils? You couldn't miss these IF the plant produced them. Here's a link about the "onion" (actually a lilly): http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week240.shtml.
Definitely not Ornithogalum longibracteatum (O. caudatum is a synonym). Plant is not a bulb and there are no bulbils on the surface. First plant is Beaucarnea recurvata. Pleomele is now officially a subgenus of Dracaena in the Sansevieria journal volume 18 (2008).
Its in the Sansevieria journal because that's where it was published. Its because of the long history of close association between the two genera as was discussed in an earlier volume of the journal. Both were at one time in the family Dracaenaceae but now are included in a broadly expanded concept of the Ruscaceae which also includes the former Convallariaceae, Nolinaceae and Eriospermaceae.
