What kind of houseplant (or tree!) is this?

February 23, 2006 8:10 AM

What kind of plant is this (or this or this.) It's a seven foot tall indoor houseplant that blooms these very sappy and strong smelling flowers every winter. It's sort of a palm-tree - but I have no idea.

I inherited it from a previous tenant, and I've since moved and brought the plant with me to a new place. I don't know much about it, except that my cats chew on the leaves. I don't have any other houseplants, and don't know much about how to care for it. I also may be moving cross-country this August, and I want to know
a) what kind of plant this is,
and b) how would I move it x-country w/o damaging it. I may be moving to a warmer climate where it could potentially be outside most of the year and really flourish, so I don't want to kill it.

posted by itchi23 to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

It's some sort of Yucca Palm. They're fairly hardy, and can do without much water. They've also lasted OK in my freezing cold house (before I installed heating). I'd just be careful not to knock it and hope for the best.
posted by handee at 8:17 AM on February 23, 2006

It's a corn plant (Dracaena fragrans)
posted by rxrfrx at 8:17 AM on February 23, 2006

Called a corn plant due to the resemblance between the leaves and the leaves of a, well, corn plant.
posted by OmieWise at 8:36 AM on February 23, 2006

Buddy of mine had a roommate move in, with *3* of these plants. When the roommate moved out (actually, just left for Greece on a 1 week vacation and never came back) the sap stains from these things were a BITCH to clean up. And they're still there, actually.
posted by antifuse at 8:46 AM on February 23, 2006

The cats shouldn't be chewing on it, as that sap is toxic.

There are good care tips for corn plants here. Aside from the problem of the sap, they're great plants -- they improve air quality and require minimal care.
posted by desuetude at 9:27 AM on February 23, 2006

Response by poster: Excellent! Thanks everyone!
posted by itchi23 at 10:22 AM on February 23, 2006

Dracaena.

damn. too slow.
posted by lyam at 10:31 AM on February 23, 2006

Some kinda Dracaena, I agree. Most of those plants tend to get very "leggy" after a while, and if you want to shorten it, or make several plants out of it, you can air layer it. The process involves carefully making a vertical slit with a sharp thing, like an Exacto knife, holding the slit open with something like a toothpick or two, then you paste it in wet moss of some sort, wrap the mess with a plastic, occlusive wrap and tie it at the top and bottom. Use something soft and transparent, like Saran wrap or a baggie, so you can see what's going on, and keep it damp. Eventually, it will form nice roots in the plastic, and you can just cut it off below the roots and plant it. For bonus points, the leftover stick will form new shoots and leaves, only now it's shorter. (You can see where it's been cut off at the bottom and put out two new shoots.) I haven't done this in years, so google the thing first, this is just in general terms.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 8:50 AM on February 26, 2006