Resurrection Plants
Read about Resurrection Plants in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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Resurrection Plants are such plants as "come to life" after being apparently dead. They are kept in a dried state as curiosities, to be "resurrected" on occasion, and sometimes they are grown for a similar purpose but they are scarcely horticultural subjects. The commonest resurrection plants are members of the mustard family and the club moss family. Others are Asteriscus, a composite, and Mesembryanthemum, of the fig-marigold family. Many plants can be similarly revived from the dried state, particularly those of desert regions. 1. The rose of Jericho is properly . Anastatica hierochuntica, Linn., whiph name means "resurrection plant from Jericho." The plant is a native of the sandy deserts from Arabia and Syria to Algeria. It is an annual and grows about 6 inches high. Soon after flowering the leaves fall and the branches become woody and roll up into a ball, reminding one of wickerwork or lattice. (Fig. 3364.) Inside the ball are the seeds, or, in botanical language, the fruits, which are borne in a protected position near the tips or on the sides of the inrolled branches. (Fig. 3365.) The plants are up-rooted by the winds and are blown about on the deserts. These balls were thought by many to be "the rolling thing before the whirlwind" mentioned in Isaiah, and were brought to Europe by the crusaders. The shape of these balls might be fancifully compared to that of an unopened rose. When the winter rains descend or when the balls are blown into the Mediterranean the branches at once open back and stretch out Straight, the fruits open, and the seeds germinate very quickly, "often in the fruit," according to Warming. The dead plants do not, of course, "come to life, but they retain their hygroscopic properties for many years. Botanically, Anastatica is distinct by reason of its short and broad fruit or silicle, which has two ear-like appendages at the top. The silicle is divided by a transverse partition into two cells, each of which contains a seed. There is only one species. The genus belongs to the Arabis tribe of the Cruciferae, but is exceptional in not having a long slender silicle. The growing plant has obovate leaves, the lower ones entire, upper ones toothed, and the flowers are small, white, and borne in spikes in midsummer. Excellent pictures of resurrection plants may be found in Kerner & Oliver's "Natural History of Plants," together with accounts of the behavior of the various kinds. See also B.M. 4400, G.C. 1872:1068, Gn. 4, p. 111. These plants have much folk-lore. 2. The bird's-nest moss, Selaginella lepidophylla, is a native of Mexico and reaches into western Texas. Many selaginellas curl up if allowed to dry; and several of the Mexican species do so in their native places in the dry season, but this species is said to make a tighter mass than any other. When placed in lukewarm water the fronds loosen and roll back into a flat or saucer- like position. The plant may become green and grow, and it is also said that it may be dried and revived an indefinite number of times. The specimen shown in Figs. 3366, 3367 was "resurrected" four times after it came into the hands of the Editor, and showed no indications of a limit to its reviving possibilities. Selaginellas are beautiful moss-like plants. What appear to be the leaves are really the branches, and the true leaves are scale-like. See Gn. 17, p. 400; F. 1871, p. 144; also Selaginella. 3. A member of the composite family (Odontospermum pyg- maeum, Or Asteriscus pygmaeus) is also called rose of Jericho, has the same range as No. 1, and was also brought to Europe by the crusaders. (Fig. 3368.) The branches do not roll up, but the involucre closes over the head of fruit in the dry season, and is loosened by moisture when the seeds escape. 4. Several species of Mesembryanthemum are known to be hygroscopic. According to Kerner & Oliver, "the capsular fruits of these plants remain closed in dry weather; but the moment they are moistened the valves covering the ventral sutures of the fruit-loculi open back, dehiscence takes place along the ventral sutures, and the seeds, hitherto retained in a double shroud, are washed out of the loculi by the rain." It is doubtful whether these capsules are offered in the trade. Wilhelm Miller. The cultivation of resurrection plants. Anastatica is sometimes grown for curiosity or for botanical purposes, but the plant is anything but ornamental. It has often been grown for classes in botany, sowing the seed in February in pots and keeping the plants in pots all summer. Bottom heat is not necessary at any stage, at least in America. The plant could be grown in a window-garden. The seeds may be sown in February in 4-inch pots, using a light, sandy soil, in a house with a temperature of 60° F. As soon as the seedlings are large enough they are transplanted into other 4-inch pots, three plants to a pot. The Selaginella lepidophylla is perennial. It is rarely cultivated in greenhouses for ornament, like the evergreen kinds of selaginella. It is grown chiefly in botanic gardens or by fanciers of ferns and selagi- nellas, as it is by no means the most beautiful member of the genus. The writer grew a plant of it for four years, and once saw at one of the botanical gardens a plant which through long cultivation had developed a stem almost a foot high. It looked like a miniature tree-fern, except of course that the fronds were arranged in a dense rosette, which gave the fronds a flat rather than a pendulous appearance. Whether the plants received directly from Texas have a crop of spores on them is a question. The spores do not discharge when the plants are wetted. Many extravagant statements are made about the bird's - nest moss. The dried plants offered by the trade will turn green and grow unless they are too old or have been kept dry too long. They would probably not grow if kept over more than one season. They cannot be dried again and again indefi-nitely and still remain alive. If a plant has been grown in a pot three or four years and is then dried off it will die. Most persons who grow these plants as curiosities place them in a bowl of water with perhaps a little sand and a few pebbles. The water causes them to turn green and they will grow for a time. Then if taken out of the water they may be kept dry for a time and the process repeated, but each time the plant loses its lower or outer circles of fronds much faster than new ones are made and at about the third time the plant is commonly used up. There is a fern (Polypodium polypodioides, page 2744) which could just as truly be called a resurrection plant. It is a native of the southern states, where it grows up the trunks of trees and over rocks and stones. At certain times it is dried up and parched, but as soon as moisture conditions are restored it looks as fresh as ever. In warm dry countries there are ferns of various genera that dry up and then are resurrected quickly when wet weather comes; some of these are very interesting. Edward J. Canning. Retarding is the opposite of forcing, and consists in keeping plants in cold storage, thereby preventing them from growing during their natural season. Its object is to supplement natural methods and forcing in order to produce the same thing the year round. The lily-of-the-valley is one of the plants of the first importance which may be retarded in commercial establishments. There is sufficient demand for these flowers all the year round to justify the expense of cold storage. Lily-of-the-valley "pips" may be taken from cold storage and forced into bloom in three weeks. Plants that have been retarded need very little heat when they are allowed to grow; they are eager to start, and a temperature of 45° to 50° is sufficient. Lilium speciosum, L. longiflorum, and L. auratum will bloom in ten to twelve weeks from cold storage; Azalea mollis in three to four weeks; spireas in about five weeks. Sea-kale and lilacs have also been retarded with profit. Goldenrod has been kept in an icehouse all summer and flowered for Christmas with good results. The art of retarding plants is making progress at present, and with the growth of popular taste for flowers the list of retarded plants may be greatly extended in the future. See A. F. 16:654, 655 (1900).
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