Manettia bicolor Rubiaceae Firecracker Vine
Small, sharp-pointed leaves, tube-flowers only a half-inch long, fine thready twining stems—everything about this tropical vine is miniature except the height to which it will climb in the greenhouse, or outdoors in the South. Although its inclination is to climb, it is sold most often as a plant for hanging baskets. Perhaps the lack of a support helps keep it small. The leaves cluster thickly around the intertwining stems, making a massed background for the impertinent flowers, yellow at the tips, fire-engine red at the base.
CARE. Cool greenhouse, needs fresh air, humid, loamy soil, filtered sun, moist.
PROPAGATION. Cuttings over heat, of young growth. Seeds.
SPECIAL USES. Trellis and rafter vines for the greenhouse, hanging baskets.
Maranta Marantaceae
Exotic tropical foliage plants, laying their large oval leaves almost flat on the soil, only technically different from the calatheas, and sometimes offered under that name.
(Calathea) bicolor—Really should be “tricolor,” I think. The silky, six-inch leaves are silvery in the center, feathering out to points at intervals, and fading into a dark-green zone which gives way to the basic blue-gray or gray-green that extends to the edge.
leuconeura kerchoveana—rabbit tracks, prayer plant—There’s a similar grayish feather in the center of the leaf, a lighter silver green to the margin; but in between, mahogany blotches where a “hippity-hopper” might have planted his paws. The leaves fold up in prayer at night.
leuconeura massangeana—A picture is a more vivid description than any word I can call on. The center is silver, the thin curvy lines silvery pink. The basic color is mahogany near the middle, blending into blue-green. The leaves are tissue-thin with a silky sheen and lined with plum beneath.