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New Statesman
16-07-2025
- General
- New Statesman
Potted histories
A friend asked me the other day where I would recommend for buying house plants. There was a time when I was known for this sort of thing. They'd litter up my Instagram feed; I'd write whole features about the rise of the Monstera deliciosa or why Ficus elastica was a better shout than the rather more fashionable Ficus lyrata. I interviewed several people about how to keep the notorious 'string-of-pearls' succulent (Senecio rowleyanus) alive after killing two of them, then vowed never to bother again. But these days that knowledge has been pushed out by other things. I suggested she hit either New Covent Garden Flower Market, or Columbia Road. It was a timely inquiry. This morning, a friendly stranger arrived on my doorstep with a friend and a wheelie bin and took my 6ft-tall fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) away with them. Christopher Figgins, as we knew the plant, moved in shortly after we did, five years ago. He had witnessed many a board game and an after-dinner chat, several parties, some blazing rows, and the adventures of a baby who became a toddler who likes to water him more than he needs. When we went on honeymoon for three weeks we returned to find him newly in leaf. The friend who was house sitting said she had fed him chocolate biscuits. We loved Figgins, and that is why we had to let him go. We're about to move into an absolute wreck and become renovation bores. There's another baby on the way. Figgins developed scale and fell into a non-existent watering pattern. He needs a re-pot. He needs his leaves polishing. And so off into the wheelie bin he went. I've always maintained that it is better to pass a plant on than watch it slowly disintegrate under your care (or lack thereof). Before the first baby turned up I palmed a load of house plants off on my mother, who has better light and puts them in the bath when she goes on holiday. It's nice to see them flourishing when I visit. My house plant collection, once plentiful, now consists of: several desiccated money trees that will survive the apocalypse; a blue star fern that somehow just keeps on living and Donna, the incredible spider plant that a colleague gave me before she went on mat leave, days before lockdown. Both plant and human have since sprung babies, and I've repotted some of them (the leafy ones, I mean). Life moves on. I find the exchange of house plants particularly interesting because, more than any other element of gardening, they attract sensational headlines and fanatical consumer behaviour. In recent years, stories in the press have included 'Poachers target South Africa's succulent treasure chest' and 'Millennials are obsessed with house plants because they can't afford kids', but it's a phenomenon that goes much further back in history. In 1976, the Canadian synthesizer pioneer Mort Garson made an entire album for plants to listen to (Mother Earth's Plantasia, which has enjoyed a recent resurgence). In the 17th century the aristocracy went wild for growing pineapple plants, and, later on, young Victorians welcomed house plants in an era of mass upheaval, unstable urban housing and concerns about decreasing air quality in the home. Sound familiar? Christopher Figgins's retirement to a more restful home (or rather, a more devoted one: he will now live with two toddlers rather than one) is more to do with my life circumstances changing than a great societal shift. There are still plenty of millennial and Gen-Z plant fanatics out there, pockets of whom are spending considerable sums for particularly beautiful specimens – or even plant-consultant services to choose and care for them. But hoarding dozens in one curated plant corner is somewhat sniffed at in an era when conscious consumption is key. I have not ruled out acquiring new house plants – a few months ago I bought a charming variegated oak leaf geranium from the tiny courtyard garden of Dennis Severs' House in east London. But I won't be importing any human-sized fig trees soon. And nor will I have to: it transpires that Christopher hasn't gone very far at all. His new custodians live around the corner from the home we're moving in to. I've already been invited to visit once he's settled in. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe [See also: On freedom vs motherhood] Related
The Citizen
11-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Citizen
Create a cosy winter hideaway with indoor plants
Winter can be a cold, dull season, with very little sign of life outdoors and homes that feel equally chilly. Just adding colour, especially colourful winter throws and cosy knee blankets are warm on the eye while indoor plants and flowers bring a room to life. Another bonus of indoor plants is that they keep the air fresh and improve humidity when windows and doors are kept closed. Make the most of sunny rooms and windowsills, by adding flowering plants and succulents that enjoy the milder winter sun. Zantedeschia, chrysanthemums, anthuriums, kalanchoe and calandiva, as well as Gymnocalycium cactus will provide long lasting winter colour. While cyclamen like a cooler spot they will also thrive in sunny room as long as they are not in direct sun. Indoor flowering plants should have consistently moist but not soggy soil. Cut off dead flowers to encourage new flowers. Calla lilies (Zantedeschia) add indoor warmth with their vivid colours. Plants grown indoors can bloom for up to six weeks. Feed with a liquid fertiliser once a month and remove spent blooms to encourage new blooms. True to their tropical nature, these mini lilies flower best in a warm, bright room and can take some morning sun. Bold and big Big leaved feature plants like Monstera deliciosa, Alocasia, Ficus robusta and Ficus lyrata always make a statement and effortlessly add that missing element to a well-furnished living room. These are all tropical plants that need a warm room and medium light. Water when the potting soil feels moderately dry. Alocasia 'Red Secret' has large leaves with an intriguing texture and colour. The upper side of the heart-shaped leaf has a metallic, bronze glow, but its 'secret' is the burgundy red under leaf. It is easier to grow than it looks and its strong point is that it adapts to different light conditions, growing faster with bright light and slower with low light. Bathroom forest Plants that love humidity are perfect for steamy bathrooms and showers. Why not try the jungle look to transform your bathroom. Indulge in a long, hot soak and imagine yourself in some tropical paradise. Think ferns like Bird's nest fern (Asplenium) or Maidenhair fern (Adiantum) as well as leafy plants like Spathiphyllum (peace lily), Ficus Lyrata, Delicious monster and even Strelitzia. For a trailing effect try string of turtles (Peperomia prostrata). All these plants like medium light and can tolerate low light. Sweet dreams Plants that release oxygen at night and remove toxins from the air are especially good for bedrooms and one of these is Sansevieria, also known as mother-in-law tongue. Basically, the stomata on Sansevieria leaves stay closed during the day to prevent evaporation and loss of water, and only open at night releasing all the stored oxygen. It will survive almost anywhere. It will take low light, cool temperatures, and dry soil very well. Cascading beauties Trailing plants don't necessarily have to trail although that is part of their charm. They can be trimmed to fill a hanging basket or to reduce their spread to fit into a smaller space. They are great for adding greenery in corners, higher up on bookshelves or spilling over the edge of a container or coffee table. Most trailing plants need warmth and medium to bright indirect neglect watering as it is easy to forget to water less accessible plants. However, most don't like to be over watered. For a luxuriant effect there is Golden Pothos (Scindapsus Aureus) or the heart leaf plant (Philodendron scandens). Peperomia Angulata is a trailing peperomia with light greens stripes on its bright green oval leaves and Peperomia prostrata, also known as 'String of Turtles' is a really quaint trailing plant that is idea for baskets. For more details: For more on gardening, visit Get It Magazine.
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Snail Called Picasso Joins List Of Species Named After Artists
A tiny snail was recently named after painter Pablo Picasso. It's one of many species named after celebrities or artists, but some researchers question whether species should be named after people at all. A tiny snail was named Anauchen picasso, after the blocky whorls on the shell reminded researchers ... More of Picasso's art. How do you name a snail? That's a question that several mollusk researchers tried to answer when they re-evaluated the names of hundreds of snail species from Southeast Asia. They sifted through a large museum collection to find out whether the way that these snails had been classified and named in the past still made sense. Like other species, snails are given a Latin name based on their taxonomical classification. At the top level of this taxonomy, all species are grouped into either one of the domains of bacteria, archae or eukarya. The first two domains are microbial, but the eukarya include all animals, plants, fungi and a few other organisms. Humans and snails are both in the kingdom of animals, but after that we quickly diverge into separate branches of the taxonomical tree. We're in the phylum of vertebrates, like other animals with internal skeletons, but snails are mollusks. After domain, kingdom and phylum, the next taxonomy subcategories are class, order, family, genus and species. Those last two levels, genus and species, also form the official name of every unique type of organism. These dual names are used for anything that lives or used to live. Humans are Homo sapiens, Monstera deliciosa is a trendy house plant, Tyrannosaurus rex was a big dinosaur, Escherichia coli (or E. coli for short) is a type of bacteria, and now there is a very tiny snail from Thailand called Anauchen picasso. Any biologist who first discovers a new species (or occasionally an entirely new genus) can come up with a name for it. There are rules about capitalisation, italics and standard abbreviations, but beyond that, anything goes. Some species are named after that organism's defining properties. For example, 'sapiens' means 'knowing', because humans can be pretty smart sometimes. Other species are named after the location where they're found, like the mosquito Aedes aegypti, named after Egypt. Many researchers also use the opportunity to name a species after a famous person. The name Anauchen picasso was inspired by the boxy patterns in the snail's shell. Instead of smooth spirals, it had unexpected angles like a Picasso painting. In a similar vein, other researchers named a wasp Nanochtulhu lovecrafti because its head kind of reminded them of a small version of H.P. Lovecraft's character Chtulhu. Many other species are named after famous artists as well. Say 'spiders' and your mind might wander to 'spiders from Mars', so the Heteropoda davidbowie spider, the Spintharus davidbowiei spider and an entire genus of Bowie spiders are all named after David Bowie, who also has a trilobite, slug and fly named after him. Likewise, there are multiple beetles named after The Beatles as a group or after their individual members, and a fossil species of water lilies is named after Claude Monet, famous for his water lily paintings. Sometimes, biologists just like to name their newly discovered species after people they admire. Kate Winslet, Shakira, Greta Thunberg, Gandhi, Douglas Adams, Johnny Cash and many other famous people all have species named after them. In 2023, an international group of researchers argued that these tribute names can be a problem. The problem isn't so much with naming a beetle after The Beatles, but with the history of some of the names. Although there are still new species being discovered today, huge numbers of them were discovered and named in the past, when biology wasn't yet as inclusive as it is today. As the researchers in the 2023 commentary noted, '9th-century and early 20th-century taxonomy was largely dominated by white men who, by and large, honoured other men (funders, colleagues, collectors and so on) of their own nationality, ethnicity, race and social status.' So even though most species are not found in Europe, many of them are named after Europeans. At best, it doesn't make much sense. But it can get much, much worse. In 1933, scientists named a newly discovered beetle after Hitler. That certainly didn't age well, but the name cannot be changed. Even though there is a lot of freedom about choosing new names for species, there are very strict rules about renaming them, and the beetle Anophthalmus hitleri did not meet those criteria. But it gets even worse. As a result of its name, the beetle has become a collector's item to people who collect Nazi memorabilia, so it's now a threatened species. Even that doesn't meet the rules for renaming, though. The authors of the commentary about the naming issue argue that to avoid things like this, no species should be named after a person at all. They wrote, 'we believe that naming species in honour of real people is unnecessary and objectively difficult to justify. The Earth's biodiversity is part of a global heritage that should not be trivialized by association with any single human individual, whatever their perceived worth.' Maybe the rules will change one day, but until that happens, there will still be plenty of new species named after artists and other famous people. Even though a Thai snail called Picasso doesn't make much sense, it's still a chance to grab some attention and get people to think about snails and biodiversity.
The Guardian
31-01-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Houseplant clinic: why is my monstera turning yellow?
What's the problem? The leaves on my Swiss cheese plant are losing their dark green colour. Diagnosis Yellowing leaves on a monstera (Monstera deliciosa or Swiss cheese plant) can be caused by overwatering, underwatering, low light or nutrient imbalances. Overwatering is the usual culprit – if the soil stays too wet, the roots may suffocate or develop rot, leading to yellow leaves. But underwatering can also stress the plant and cause leaf yellowing. Inadequate light or an abrupt change in lighting conditions may also contribute. Prescription Start by checking the soil. If it's wet and waterlogged, hold off on watering and let the soil dry out slightly. If the roots are rotting, you'll need to repot the plant, trimming away any mushy roots and using fresh, well-draining soil. If the soil is too dry, thoroughly water your plant, ensuring excess water drains. Ensure it receives bright, indirect light, and adjust its position if it's in a low-light spot. Prevention Water your monstera only when the top two inches of soil feel dry. Don't let it sit in waterlogged soil or let the soil completely dry out. Place the plant in a spot with consistent light, rotate it occasionally for even growth, and feed it with a balanced fertiliser during the growing season. Got a plant dilemma? Email saturday@ with 'Houseplant clinic' in the subject line
