White Anne - Fittonia

Fittonia are native to Peru. They're interesting because they don't do well with a lot of sunlight, which is a whole area that I need to research: if plants rely on photosynthesis, why do some of them do best with little to no sunlight?

Phylum/division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Genus: Fittonia
Species: ?? Can't find a species name yet

Basil - Ocimum basilicum

Basil is native to South Asia and South-East Asia. It is not, therefore, adapted to cold temperatures, and is already starting to look a little wilty and feeble out on my balcony. Earlier in the summer it looked healthier. I'm going to try to grow it indoors during the winter.

Basil is from the same family -- Lamiaceae -- as many other plants that we enjoy eating: mint, sage, rosemary, oregano, and thyme, among others.


Phylum/division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Ocimum
Species: O. basilicum

Sage - Salvia officinalis

This plant is growing very well and looking lovely. The only problem it's going to have in life is that it smells so good, I'm going to break down and eat it all any day now.

The word Salvia, in its Latin name, means "to heal," and evidently sage has been recommended throughout history for nearly every disease you can think of. My instinctive reaction was that this is probably because it smells so good, you feel like it has to be good for you, but then I plugged Salvia officinalis into Pubmed and learned that there's actually some evidence that it's a beneficial antioxidant and might have some impact on Alzheimer's.

Salvia officinalis is native to Europe and Asia Minor.


Phylum/division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Salvia
Species: S. officinales

Rosemary - Rosmarinus officinalis

Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean region.

When I first saw the scientific name, "Rosmarinus" struck me as a fake Latin word invented to match the English word, "rosemary" (my suspicions re Latinesque words have been heightened ever since I got my diploma and discovered that it has a fake Latin word for "Connecticut" - "Connecticensus" (or something like that)). Oh, how wrong I was! At least according to thefreedictionary.com, which says that "rosemary" comes from a Middle English word "rosemarine," which was derived from the Latin words "ros marinus."


Phylum/division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Rosmarinus
Species: R. officinalis

Russian Sage - Perovskia atriplicifolia

Russian Sage is, oddly, not native to Russia but rather to Afghanistan. The name is not some weird hold-over from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, but rather simply comes from the fact that a Russian botanist happened to be the first one to name it, back in the 1800s.

Also, oddly, it's not sage. It happens to smell similar to sage, though, and hence the name.

This plant is not happy. It hasn't been since the day I got it. It turns out this is because it really wants to be an outdoor plant and not live in a pot. Which raises the question: what difference does it make whether plants live indoors or outdoors? If they're in a pot that's large enough that their roots can expand as needed and still be surrounded on all sides by dirt, and if they get sunlight (albeit through glass) for as many hours a day as they would outdoors, what difference does it make?
Since glass blocks UV rays, I looked into whether UV rays are needed for the photosynthetic process or otherwise. According to what I read, not only are they not necessary for photosynthesis, but at higher levels they actually impede photosynthesis (for reasons I'm not going to get into here).
Of course, unless I tote them around the apartment at different times of day, they don't really get sun for as many hours as they would if they were outside.
Also, the man at the farmer's market who I love so much said that the ground outside buffers extreme changes in moisture -- which some plants are not very well equipped to handle -- by offering a large amount of surrounding earth for water to soak into after rainfall. Whereas when I water a small pot of dirt, all the water just sits right there soaking into the roots of the plant.
I'm going to go with that explanation for now.
So I'm attempting a modified watering system in which I water the plant some from the top but some from the bottom, by putting water in its dish to be absorbed, and use less water at a time but more frequently.
The confounding factor is that this plant also probably needs more sun than it's getting inside (see above), but it's too cold lately to put it outside.


Phylum/division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Perovskia
Species: P. atriplicifolia

China Doll - Radermachera

Radermachera is an evergreen tree native to subtropical mountainous regions of China and Taiwan. Some species can reach heights of up to 30 meters tall, with a trunk diameter of 1 meter, so that's totally what I'm shooting for. But I doubt mine is the right species.

So far it is looking very healthy, growing in the sunlight next to my patio door.

It has glossier leaves than any other plant I have and I am curious as to the function/effects of this, but that's a mystery for another day.


Phylum/division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Bignoniaceae
Genus: Radermachera
Species: ?? Don't have species name yet