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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

 
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Saturday - September 12, 2009

From: Hancock, WI
Region: Midwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I am looking for the name of plant my Grandma used to own. She always referred to it as a spider plant. The green part of the plant looked very similar to a spider plant but growing around the base of the plant was long hairy legs(looked like tarantula legs they were grey and black) Hope you can help.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants hates to admit defeat, but he can't come up with any native plant that fits your description.  Sorry!  In fact, your plant sounds as if it might be tropical and out of our area of expertise.  The UBC Botanical Garden Forums are very active with participants who have a wide base of knowledge of all sorts of plants.  You might try submitting your description to them and perhaps there is someone who will recognize the plant and can give you a name for it.
 

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