Native Plants

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 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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Monday - December 01, 2008

From: Smithville, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identification of Canopy Plant
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I recently adopted a large house plant from a neighbor who moved away. He called it a 'Canopy Plant', but I'm having no luck with that name when I search for care tips. It seems to be in poor health, almost completely defoliated. It is 5 or 6 feet tall, with a 3inch trunk all green color, and has some very rose-like thorns all the way from soil level up the single trunk, then spreads out with 3 or 4 thin limbs about 4 feet up. Heavily armed with these thorns. Do you have any idea what this plant is and how to care for it? Very unusual..thanks!

ANSWER:

Sorry, we had no luck locating a plant of this common name, either. We did find a couple of really funny, tongue-in-cheek (we hope!) websites saying that the Canopy Plant was a neogen transforming plant with bionano capabilities that is dropped from planetary orbit. Not.

Perhaps someone here can identify your plant from a picture, and then we can try to find some information for you (real information). Here are instructions for sending Mr. Smarty Plants a photo of your mystery plant:

Plant Identification

Need help with a plant ID? Send us an email following the instructions below.

1. Tell us where and when you found the plant and describe the site where it occurred.

2. Take several high resolution images including details of leaves, stems, flowers, fruit, and the overall plant.

3. Save images in JPEG format.

4. Send email with images attached to [email protected]. Please enter Plant ID Request on the subject line of your email.