When love leaves ...

Philodendron. The name derives from the Greek philo or 'love' and dendron, 'tree', because of its heart-shaped leaves.

I didn't know until I looked it up that philodendrons belong to the same family as the Arum lily and the beautiful Flamingo lily (Araceae), which shouldn't come as a surprise as they do have something similar about them.

I have at least three different philodendrons within my range (1,000 paces) for Sandy Beach Almanac. From what I've read, they're all as nasty for the innards as they are pleasing to the eye, due to the presence of calcium oxalate crystals, so I won't be attempting a taste trial today.

I'm a philodendron novice, and I don't know the names of these three pictured. I do know that some philos are small trees or shrubs, but most are evergreen epiphytic plants with aerial roots, growing by climbing up a host tree. That's what my three are.

The one on the left (click the thumb to enlarge), is one big pace from my desk, and I'm training it to grow up the wall and, if I'm lucky, hive me a ceiling jungle. I cleared it with the landlord. It got off to a good start a couple of months ago, but now that Winter is breathing down its neck, it's slowed down to a crawl.

The middle one is about four or five paces to my west, the biggest philo around here, and you can see it epiphyting on an old gum tree.

Love-tree number three is three paces to the north, or to my right as I face west as I write, and that's an in-between-sized philo living life up to about halfway on a frangipanni (about which, more at a later date).

The philodendrons being epiphytic mean that there is no danger to the frangipanni, or the old gum tree. Epiphytes are not parasitic on their host, as they grow independently, gaining just physical support.

Anyway, that's what I told the landlord vis a vis the ceiling.