Sansevieria pup runners

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Sansevierias, just like cycads, agaves, and aloes, produce pups. That is, plants that grow directly from the mother plant. And I've noticed that my agaves and aloes will often send a runner out for quite a distance and then a pup will appear. Sometimes the pup will be in a good location, and I'll leave it alone, sometimes it won't be, and I'll dig it up to plant elsewhere. But it wasn't until this year that I saw some very mysterious runners that kind'a looked like the Loch Ness Monster coming from some sansevierias.


I started planting sansevieria last year that were given to me by a fellow member of the Arizona Palm and Cycad Association. By the way, the most common sansevieria is called a Snake Plant, which you see all of the time indoors. When I was a kid it was called Mother-in-Law's Tongue.

According to my expert, the runners were bumping against something and hadn't yet begun to turn back up towards the light. I dug one out, just to see, and sure enough, it was still digging along, and was just barely starting to make its turn upwards. Luckily, I have a couple more that I've left alone, and I will wait until they decide to make their appearance. In the meantime, I'm just going to see the little "Lock Ness Monsters" in the ground, and leave them alone.

Brad draws custom cartoon illustrations for publications, blogs, presentations, anything you want. You can contact him at his website BradHallArt.com

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