String of hearts can be grown outdoors in tropical or subtropical climates, but is also an easy indoor plant that can be grown in a west or south facing window. ![]() The leaves are dark green mottled with silver. variegata has cream and pink variegated leaves. Underground the roots may develop tubers, which can grow to fill a pot. It develops a woody caudex at its base as it matures. woodii is a caudiciform plant, having a swollen basal stem or root for water storage. The succulent leaves become thickened when storing water.Ĭ. The stacks of flat seeds each have a pappus – very similar to milkweed seed – that help the seeds disperse on the wind. If pollinated, the flowers are followed by horn-shaped seed pods characteristic of the milkweed family. Hummingbirds may be attracted to the flowers if the plants are outside during the summer. The insect is prevented from escaping until the hairs wither, and the fly departs with a pollinia (a mass of pollen grains that are transferred as a group) attached that can then be transferred to the next flower the fly visits. The waxy flowers are lined with small, downward pointing hairs that act to trap small flies that are attracted by the scent and enter the flowers. The five purple petals are fused at the tips, forming a cage-like canopy so the blossoms resemble a small inverted pink vase. The interesting and distinctive inch-long flowers have a bulbous base and tubular corolla in shades of white to pale magenta. Plants bloom primarily in the summer and fall, but flowers may appear sporadically at odd times throughout the year. Small tubers, which look somewhat like little potatoes, form at the nodes or leaf bases along the stems – another possibility for the “beads” that give rise to the common name of rosary vine. With the tangled, trailing branches that can grow several feet long hanging down, the regularly spaced leaves resemble a row of large beads. In other species the leaves may be rudimentary or absent, or may be thick, fleshy and succulent. They are dark green marbled with silver on the upper surface and green to purple on the underside. The simple, opposite heart-shaped leaves are 1-2 cm wide and long. The stems can also be trained up a small trellis or topiary frame. The stringy, purplish stems are vining or trailing, making this best grown as a hanging plant. woodii, like many other species in this genus, is a straggly evergreen climber that in its native habitat would scramble up through other vegetation. ![]() The pink or purple stems bear many heart-shaped leaves.Ĭ. ![]() woodii, along with chain of hearts, collar of hearts, and hearts entangled (because the stems easily enmesh). Rosary vine is another commonly used name for C. Plants in this genus have many other colorful common names including bushman’s pipevine, lantern flower, necklace vine, parachute flower, and wine-glass vine. The species name honors John Medley Wood (1827-1915), who collected native African plants after he retired from the East Indian Merchant Service. The genus name was given by Linneaus to describe his interpretation of the appearance of the flowers as fountains of wax from the words keros, meaning wax, and pege meaning fountain. Native to southern Africa, from Zimbabwe to eastern South Africa, this tender perennial plant in the milkweed subfamily (Asclepiadoideae) of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae) is sometimes classified as C. String of Hearts, Ceropegia woodii, is just one of many species in the genus Ceropegia that are grown as ornamental houseplants.
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