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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 - August 04, 2012

From: Fort Worth, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Non-Natives, Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Hello Mr. Smarty Plants! I have a plant that was given to me and told it was spider plant, but I don't believe it is. The plat grows up and has leaves coming out like a spider plant but they are green and red-ish color at the bottom.

ANSWER:

First of all, our focus and expertise here at the Wildflower Center are with plants native to North America and the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is an African native.  Second of all, your description doesn't give us enough detail to identify your plant and we cannot accept attached photographs.   If you will visit our Plant Identification page, however, you will find links to several plant identification forums that will accept the photograph of your plant for identification.

 

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