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Dieffenbachia (J. F. Dieffenbach, a German botanist, 1794-1847) Araceae. Popular hothouse plants, grown for their handsome and striking foliage.
Low, shrubby perennials: sts. rather thick, inclined or creeping at the base, then erect, with a leafy top: petioles half-cylindrical, sheathed to above the middle, long, cylindrical at the apex; blade oblong, with a thick midrib at the base; veins very numerous, the first and second parallel, ascending, curving upward at their ends: peduncle shorter than the lvs. Differs from Aglaonema in floral characters. Cent. and S. Amer.—
Perhaps a dozen species. Engler (in Engler & Prantl, 1889) recognizes many species, with many varieties.
For dieffenbachias, similar rooting material to that mentioned for anthuriums, combined with a high and moist atmosphere, will produce a very healthy and luxuriant growth of foliage, especially after the plants have made their first few leaves in ordinary light potting soil. Unless it be the very large-leaved kinds, like D. triumphans, D. nobilis and D. Baumannii, three or four plants may be placed together in large pots, keeping the balls near the surface in potting. D. Jenmanii, D. Shuttleworthiana, D. Leopoldii and D. eburnea are all well suited for massing together in large pots. When above a certain height, varying in different species, the plants come to have fewer leaves, and those that remain are small; they should then be topped, retaining a considerable piece of the stem, and placed in the sand-bed, where they will throw out thick roots in a week or two. The remaining part of the stems should then be cut up into pieces 2 or 3 inches long, dried for a day or so, and then put into boxes of sand, when, if kept warm and only slightly moist, every piece will send out a shoot, and from the base of this shoot roots will be produced. These can be potted up as soon as roots have formed. (G. W. Oliver.)
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