# What Is Your Most Expensive Plant In Your Terrarium?



## Talapus (Sep 9, 2020)

So, curious to hear from the die hards and lifers out there that really love the botany and beauty of the plants they place in their terrarium. I know a lot of people try to grow things from clippings but I was curious as to what plant you have that has really cost you? Be it in time, frustration, anxiety or overall cost? I'll start though I would bet I barely scratch the surface:

This is my Sophrontis Pygmaea Orchid native to Brazil. The price range on these guys is crazy but I found this dude for $50. Now people who come and look at the tank say it's very pretty and they like it and then they ask what it cost and say they aren't sure it was worth it. But see, it got their attention so it must be working. Honestly was just flipping through plants one day and decided I had to have it. This thing is literally only 2 inches long total roots and all. So, let's see yours:


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Marcgravia species... Pretty much all of them lol, except rectiflora, that one's been easy to grow for me. 

Also the most expensive I've paid for a plant, even though they were only $20 each. Have umbellata, sintenisii and rectiflora and an unidentified one


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

Just like with frogs, I find expense to be irrelevant.

I'm much more in tune with ...

What is your FAVORITE plant in your terrarium?


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## JPP (Mar 25, 2015)

The most expensive plant I've purchased is probably Philodendron verrucosum. The most expensive marcgravia I've ever purchased was a cutting of Marcgravia sp. "Bastimentos", but the price wasn't that bad for it (I haven't purchased that many marcgravia sp. over the years).


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## DPfarr (Nov 24, 2017)

I have some Lepanthes lucifer I paid 75 for. 

They haven’t grown in to a great extent to flower yet. 

Until then, Lepanthes niesseniae is that favorite. 









I had some small leftovers from a Dendrophylax lindenii flask. I tied three of them down in my leucomelas’ tank.


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Scott said:


> Just like with frogs, I find expense to be irrelevant.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


In this case: Pilea "Moon Valley" , probably my favorite plant in my tanks. Grows tall, sturdy leaves.


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## Tijl (Feb 28, 2019)

I could not be more undiced on what my favorite plant would be. If I had to chose one it would be a bromeliad since they are the birthingpods to some of our frogs..

I only recently discovered the pilea 'moon valley' aswell! It's easy to fall in love with that pilea! Totaly get why you love it so much.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Scott said:


> Just like with frogs, I find expense to be irrelevant.
> 
> I'm much more in tune with ...
> 
> What is your FAVORITE plant in your terrarium?


_Pellionia pulchra_. Five bucks anywhere, or dig in the trash in my reptile room for freebies. Grows well, shingles like a dream, the Romans even named it 'beautiful'.


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## dwllama (Aug 29, 2020)

Socratic Monologue said:


> _Pellionia pulchra_. Five bucks anywhere, or dig in the trash in my reptile room for freebies. Grows well, shingles like a dream, the Romans even named it 'beautiful'.


By "grows well", does that also mean "takes over tanks if you're not looking"? I'm pretty sure one of the loosely identified plant starts I got from a former hobbyist a few weeks ago is pellonia pulchra (unless it's perhaps pellonia repens, many of the photos in a google search look basically identical). Along with creeping fig, which I'm highly skeptical of actually putting in my tank....

As far as most expensive, I haven't even received it yet but just ordered a Macodes petola the other day, and fought myself over a vining, possibly shingling solanum (finally decided against it). The most expensive thing I _want_ is some marcgravia....but the place I was ordering from was out of anything under $40 per start 😳

My favorite thing in the grow out bin right now is an approximately pea-sized Trichoceros muralis start that I also got from the former hobbyist. Hopefully it survives!


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

dwllama said:


> By "grows well", does that also mean "takes over tanks if you're not looking"? I'm pretty sure one of the loosely identified plant starts I got from a former hobbyist a few weeks ago is pellonia pulchra (unless it's perhaps pellonia repens, many of the photos in a google search look basically identical). Along with creeping fig, which I'm highly skeptical of actually putting in my tank....


_P. pulchra_ and _P. repens_ are quite distinctive from each other:

https://www.glassboxtropicals.com/Pellionia-pulchra-p/pelpul.htm
https://www.glassboxtropicals.com/Pellionia-repens-p/pelrep.htm

By 'grows well' I mean something like 'I don't have to lose sleep over whether it needs carefully chosen ventilation patterns or a certain color temp of lighting or some special substrate or I can only mist it on days with a 'T' in the name and only then with room temperature water' -- it just needs dirty roots and bright leaves and it grows.

As for taking over a viv, many of the vining plants we use will -- heck, the worst offender in my vivs is _Marcgravia rectiflora_. It outgrows _Ficus pumilia variegata_ for me. 

I don't know why creeping fig gets such a bad rap, BTW; pruning this stuff isn't difficult at all.


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## dwllama (Aug 29, 2020)

Socratic Monologue said:


> _P. pulchra_ and _P. repens_ are quite distinctive from each other:


Oh, definitely the pulchra, then. For some reason a lot of Google image results on repens also look like pulchra, but I'm so clever I didn't think of looking for them both on the same reputable website  



> I don't know why creeping fig gets such a bad rap, BTW; pruning this stuff isn't difficult at all.


I'd have to guess that many people complaining about it either don't trim their tanks that often, or don't _want to._ May be worth mentioning that a non-variegated variety is likely to grow a lot more strongly than a variegated variety, if that's what you're comparing (speaking from experience growing Ficus benjamina as a houseplant)

I guess my biggest concern with creeping fig is how difficult would it be to completely remove if I decide it doesn't do it for me? Is it one of the plants that comes back from any little scrap of root (commonly known as "weeds" in the garden xD)? There can be a place for plants like that, but I tend to be pretty cautious about them!


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## gonzalez (Mar 28, 2018)

My most valuable plant is Anoectochilus chapaensis and petola macodes, which I got for 10$ from an orchid show, but is listed as 35$ from glass box tropicals. Im planning on buying philodendron verrucosum “mini”, which will set me back about 100$. Current favorite plants are neoregelia “Zoe”, which I got off tropiflora, but can’t seem to find in their site anymore, and marcgravia rectiflora. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tijl (Feb 28, 2019)

Is Pilea 'moon valley' a different/commercial name for Triolena pustulata?


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Tijl said:


> Is Pilea 'moon valley' a different/commercial name for Triolena pustulata?


Pilea "Moon Valley" is a cultivar of Pilea mollis, but it looks very similar to Triolena pustulata


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## Tijl (Feb 28, 2019)

Thanks 🙂


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## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

Here's why I love Pilea mollis "Moon Valley":
It's frequently used as a perch by my frogs.


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