My Plant Of The Week - The Dumb Cane

Hello everyone. It is now time for My Plant Of The Week episode. This is a personal series of mine, now running on its eighth week. Here I feature a plant, which may or may not be in our garden, or may be in a friend's house, or in the office, or someplace on my way to somewhere. The objective is to showcase the different plants this side of the world, their uses if any, and of course their ornamental or aesthetic beauty.

For this week the plant I will feature is called the Dumb Cane Plant. You may wonder why it is called as such. The reason is the sap of this plant is poisonous that when ingested causes the numbing of the throat and vocal chords and thus rendering the victim speechless until the poison wears off. This normally takes about 2 weeks to clear. And that's why it is called Dumb Cane.

The Dumb Cane Plant's scientific name is Dieffenbachia Amoena. It is a very popular house plant known for its wide, bushy, intricate and uniquely patterned leaves. Each leaf of this plant is usually yellow near the vein then turns dark green along the edges. It is a very resilient plant and can tolerate neglect quite well so it is a perfect plant for one who has a black or brown thumb just like me. The only thing this plant should not have is direct sunlight. Which makes it very ideal for indoors.

The photos shown above are my wife's collection of Dumb Canes or Dieffenbachia's. These plants were not bought. They were found, or should I say spotted, by my wife growing on a vacant lot along our street. This vacant lot I am sure is owned by someone. But it has been left to neglect and abandonment by the owner over the last 20 years. The area has become a dumping ground for passersby, grazing area for neighbors raising goats and sheep, and a shortcut to the adjacent lot which is being developed as a subdivision. So there is sort of an unwritten understanding in our neighborhood that when it comes to this particular lot it is no man's land. And when my wife saw the dumb canes growing there she knew they would not survive long because they were exposed to direct sunlight. She immediately asked our gardener helper to get the plants from the lot, repotted them and now are beginning to look healthy again.

Photo above will give you an idea of how the vacant lot looks like. It is really close to becoming a jungle. But wait! I think I see something interesting. Can you see it? Let's have a closer look.

There are new Dumb Cane plants growing! Two of them. Perfect addition to my wife's collection. Can't wait to tell her! They look healthy now but they won't for long. They are directly under the sun which is contraindicated for Dieffenbachia's. Secondly, goats grazing here could either chew off the leaves or trample them while foraging for edible greens. An example is this plant which we "rescued" from the lot.

Notice how the leaves at the lower portion look. Some have sun burns already. One of the leaves also has a sizeable portion cut off presumably from goats. These plants were repotted about 2 months ago and how they have recovered. They have grown at least half a foot taller and the leaves look shinier and healthy.

Do you know the Dumb Cane Plants can grow upto 6 feet tall? And their leaves reaching almost 2 feet long and about a foot wide? Because of these characteristics, the Dumb Cane is very efficient in absorbing carbon dioxide from the air. In a Malaysian study, the Dumb Cane topped the test in CO2 absorption, besting other known carbon absorbing plants like pothos, spider plant and anthurium. This plant is also an air purifier, reducing harmful and toxic compounds in the air, more specifically xylene and toluene, the latter causing insomnia, exhaustion, weakness and in extreme cases liver and kidney problems. Aside from the benefits mentioned above, the Dumb Cane plant offers low maintenance care, a tropical look and a lovely and eye-catching indoor plant. Read more on its benefits in the link here.

The next image is not mine but will eventually be a common one in our home. Once we have repotted these Dumb Canes in their permanent pots and place them around the house. What a sight to look forward to.

Source

And that about wraps up this Episode of My Plant Of The Week. I do hope you enjoyed this and learned something new about plants this side of the world. Do follow me in this series of mine. And, if you missed some or all of my earlier episodes, the links are provided below. Just click on them and see how nature works around this side of town. Thanks for visiting. Please stay safe and may you all have a great week ahead!

First Edition - A Superhero Marvel

Second Edition - A Pungent Beauty

Third Edition - Gentle Giants

Fourth Edition - Suffused With Succulents

Fifth Edition - A Ti For Two Or Three Or Four

Sixth Edition - My Bleeding Heart Vine

Seventh Edition - Heya Hoya

(Except when indicated, all photos are mine.)