Tacca chantrieri. or bat plant

4 comments

What a strange plant this is. I saw it in a shop in Holland and just loved it. The delicate flowers in the centre make it look so very strange.
I didnt know when i brought it that its really a conservatory plant but too late to worry about it now so its in front of the patio doors.
I picked a specimen that didnt have any of the centre flowers open. I have it at home now just over a week and its thriving well. the centre flowers are slowly opening and they seem to last a while. There is no fragrance to this plant though.
Yesterday i noticed the leaves had started to droop and i thought i was loosing it. A good water and everything is fine again. There doesn’t seem to be much info anywhere on how to care for this unusual plant so its going to be trial and error. I read you should add water into the centre of the leaves were they grow from so doing that. Hope its right . Also know to keep the soil damp but well drained so added some stones to the bottom of the pot for the inner pot to stand on. It also like a misting every now and again.
There is a new leaf growing from the middle so that’s a good sign.
There are 2 leaves growing out of the back of it which looks like a separate plant but attached to the plant if that makes sense. I am trying to find out i i should or even can remove it and grow it on. Not sure yet.
The flowers really are lovely. They look like they have tiny red beads in the and are opening one or 2 at a time and as there a alot of flowers in the centre I think it will look lovely for quite some time.
Just hope i can get it to flower again.

• 20 Apr, 2009
• 1 like

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