DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704040073

SECTION: HOME                    PAGE: G2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER

                                            LENGTH:  106 lines

SPLOTCHY POTHOS NEEDS FUNGICIDE SPRAYING

Can you identify leaves from the enclosed houseplant and tell me why they have large, noticeable brown spots on them? We have heard this plant called various names, including variegated philodendron, arums and cuckoopint.

B.C. Olaizola, Kill Devil Hills, N.C.

Your plant does go by many names. Like you, I usually call it philodendron. Horticulturists usually refer to it as pothos. Actually, its proper name is Scindapsus or Devil's Ivy. They are climbers closely related to philodendrons. Yours is S. aureaus, now correctly called Epipremmum aurem but commonly known as golden hunter's robe, pothos vine or Soloman Island's ivy. It has angular, yellowish green stems and bright green leaves irregularly marked with yellow. On young plants, leaves are 4 to 6 inches long and wide, but they can be twice as big on older plants growing in larger pots. One form, Golden Queen, has stems and leaves almost completely golden yellow.

Owner Cash King of Flower's by Kings in Virginia Beach helped me identify your plant and quickly identified the large brown splotches in the leaves as Botrytis. He says to take the plant outdoors and spray it with Benomyl or a similar fungicide. Benomyl would be best, but it does stain carpet so be sure to spray it outdoors. He added that philodendron has round stems while pothos stems are nearly square.

Can you help in eliminating violets from our lawn? We've sprayed with Spectrum and Weed-B-Gon, but nothing seems to diminish the plants. They continue to spread. I've even tried pulling them up but don't usually get the whole root, so they reappear.

Janice S. Bradbury, Norfolk

Weed specialist Laurie Smith at the Hampton Roads Research Center confirms that violets are one of the worst to eradicate. They are a perennial and often you have a 50/50 chance of eradicating them. She says to use Weed B-Gon in April, before a waxy coating appears on the leaves. You'll need to use it three times, 10 days apart.

If that doesn't work, your other choice is to use Roundup and spot treat them. That can be helpful when you have a lot of them in one location. Even then, she says two treatments will be required. Remember that Roundup kills everything green, including grass.

Last October, I took a trip to Indiana. It was a beautiful drive with leaves at their peak. All through Ohio, I noticed a bush that seemed to be everywhere. The person I stayed with referred to it as ``firebush.'' The leaves were hot pink. I would love to have one in my yard to add color in the fall. When I got home, I looked in every garden book I owned and couldn't find any reference to this plant.

Please let me know the identity of the plant, whether it can be grown in this area and where is it available for purchase? If it's not available, are there alternative plants that can be grown here that will produce that color foliage?

Marilee Peterson, Chesapeake

Your plant is Euonymas alata, often called firebush or burning bush. I noticed it 20 years along Interstate 95 between New York and Connecticut. It is beautiful in the fall. In those years, it was grown only in colder climates. You do see a good bit of it around this area now, and the city of Virginia Beach has some planted along Virginia Beach Boulevard in the Thalia area.

It is not always reliable in the South. If planted in the shade, it often loses its leaves before they change colors. I have a couple of the bushes in the shade, and they never show color.

Tom Conway at Smithfield Gardens in Suffolk says they always recommend Euoynmas alata compacta, because it colors much better and stays fairly small. It sells in a three-gallon container for $15.99. An alternate bush for red foliage would be red barberry, available in local garden centers.

Enclosed is a photo of a plant that belongs to my grandson. He would like the botanical name for it. He calls it a pineapple lily.

Ruth P. Piland, Portsmouth

Our plant identifier, Dr. Dan Milbocker, says it may be Bauhinia, which has the unusual leaf shape of your plant. The more common ones are Butterfly tree and Orchid tree, grown in Florida, but neither precisely matches the plant in your photo. Your grandson's plant appears to be Eucomis, which is commonly called pineapple lily. It is a tender African bulb, producing a rosette of leaves from the center from which the flower stalk grows. It has a spike of white or greenish flowers with a tuft of leaves growing from the top, making it look like a pineapple. With protection, it will winter over as far north as Washington. Bulbs should be planted with the tops slightly covered in loose, well-drained soil. They need plenty of water during the active growing season but can be kept dry at other times. Leaves are 2 feet long, 2 inches wide and the flower stalk is 2 feet high. This description comes from ``The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Encylopedia of Gardening.''

Can you identify the tree from which the enclosed leaves were taken? The tree is in our back yard and stands 60 feet high. It's the last tree to get leaves in spring and one of the first to turn color in the fall. It also has green berries in spring that turn red in fall. We moved into this house two years ago and have been trying to identify it since that time. Can you help?

Bill Harrell, Chesapeake

Your tree was not easy to identify. Trees that have leaves and berries that turn red each fall are rare here. Bonnie Appleton at the Hampton Roads Research Center is a tree authority, but it took her some time and several tests to arrive at the proper identification. Its common name is Water Tupelo, with a proper name of Nyssa aquatica. It appears your tree is native, so the identification should be correct.

A more common tree for this area in the same family is Nyssa sylvatica or black gum, which is fairly common, but its berries turn blue in fall. Your tree is difficult to transplant. It has dense, dark green foliage that turns a gorgeous autumn color. It grows pyramidal in habit, somewhat similar to a pin oak. Donald Wyman, in his book ``Trees for American Gardens,'' says that specimens of this tree are sent to the Arnold Arboretum more frequently than any other for identification, especially when it is in fruit. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Courtesy RUTH P. PILAND

Plant appears to be Eucomis, an African bulb also known as pineapple

lily.

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