Can you identify these houseplants?

January 22, 2011 2:11 PM

Can you help me identify these houseplants?

I just bought the houseplants in the pictures linked here. Can you help me identify these? The seller didn't give any instructions on care.

Plant 1

Plant 2

Plant 3

Plant 4

Plant 5

posted by jdruk to home & garden (12 answers total)

#3 looks like a bamboo palm.
posted by illenion at 2:37 PM on January 22, 2011

If the leaves of #1 are thick and fleshy (I can't quite tell from the pic), I would guess ice plant? The first two plants are succulents, anyway.
posted by illenion at 2:40 PM on January 22, 2011

Plant 1 is an aloe (PDF link to care).

Plant 2 looks like a fluted jade, crassula sp.

Plant 3 looks like a date palm.

Plant 4 no idea -- an orchid of some sort? Possibly an oncidium?

Plant 5 is a dracaena.
posted by vers at 2:40 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

#1 looks like an aloe. In any case, 1 and 2 are succulents and need lots of sun and just every once in a long while give them a big drink of water.
posted by mostlybecky at 2:40 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Let's see.
If #1's leaves are fleshy, it may be aloe. Can't recall #2, I think it's a succulent related to jade plant (common name). #3 may be one of the chamaedorea palms, or an areca palm, or possibly cataractarum. #4 I think is commonly called corn plant (no relation to maize etc) or ti plant, and #5 is likely one of the dracaenas, maybe marginata. I hope this provides a start, anyway.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 2:46 PM on January 22, 2011

Thank you -- this is a great starting-off point!

Indeed, the leaves of 1 are fleshy, but they're also dotted with small, slightly raised oblong white ovals. I've seen a lot of aloe plants (my mom is obsessed), but it doesn't look anything like it. Are there varieties other than the "regular" aloe?
posted by jdruk at 2:51 PM on January 22, 2011

There are over 250 varieties of aloe. Yours isn't the most common one.
posted by vers at 2:52 PM on January 22, 2011

#4 is not ti, I have ti plants growing all around my house. We have #4 growing all over too, but I don't know what it is! It could be corn plant.
posted by wandering_not_lost at 2:54 PM on January 22, 2011

#1 is perhaps an Aloe millotii.

#2 is likely a crassula of some sort (i.e., jade plant)

#3 doesn't look like a date palm to me. I think it's either a kentia palm or an areca palm. (Unsolicited advice: Don't feel bad if you kill your palm. Keeping indoor palms alive and happy can be somewhat complicated, especially if you live in a cold climate.)

#4 I can't tell. Can you post another photo? Regardless, when in doubt, follow the general guidelines for keeping all kinds of noncactus, nonsucculent houseplants: Water when the soil is dry; bright indirect light, and keep it around the same temperatures that you enjoy, preferably not below 55 degrees F and not above about 85.

#5, yeah, dracaena.
posted by purpleclover at 3:26 PM on January 22, 2011

No. 3 looks like a parlour palm (Chamaedorea elegans)
No. 4 looks like a Yucca to me (Yucca elephantipes)
posted by ComfySofa at 3:53 PM on January 22, 2011

No. 4 might be a non-variegated variety of spider plant.
posted by pantarei70 at 4:44 PM on January 22, 2011

4 could also be a young dracaena of some sort.
posted by bink at 10:38 PM on January 22, 2011