I hope to identify an office plant that unfortunately I do not have pictures of because I no longer work in that office. It did have a very distinctive appearance that I am hoping can be identified based on description: Stems are thick and woody with very prominent nodes. Stems are very straight between nodes, but change direction gradually at each node, so stems have a distinctive segmented curve appearance. The stems curve in all directions, generally growing in the direction of the light. There are some branches from nodes, but not a lot of branches. Leaves are large, simple, heart shaped, lobed, green with a pattern of white spots. I saw the plant flower once with a cluster of small pink flowers. The plant seemed to do okay with low lighting (the office had no windows) and plenty of water. I would like to get another one for my new office if I could figure out what it is!
This is my best guess but I could very well be wrong. Angle wing begonia maybe? It doesn't exactly have woody stems though if memory serves. Also the leaves aren't entirely heart shaped but it has large leaves with white spots and small pink flowers. This is just a picture that I found at http://www.pbase.com/missy_gardenwhimsy/image/31953766 There are also a ton more pics of these plants here if this one doesn't look quite right http://www.pbase.com/missy_gardenwhimsy/angel_wing_begonias Good luck! Ryan
Yes this is it, thank you! The leaves look like what I remember and searching around a little I found descriptions of the stems that match too. Angel wing begonias are also known as cane-like begonias and the stems are noted to resemble bamboo with prominent nodes. The picture shows stems that are pretty close to what I remember. The picture is from: http://fkultur.myweb.uga.edu/practice/begonia.html
I never knew that about the "cane-like stems" :). I think that I'll have to find another plant for myself or take a cutting from my Mother's plant. Glad to hear that it was what you were looking for. Cheers, RYan
