I have a problem with trying to enter my different varieties of the Spider plant. There are several things I question in the entries in the database. Could I talk to someone who could possibly refine the entries so that they are accurately named and pictured? The spider is an extremely popular houseplant and they are easily mixed up and confused if not described and shown properly with the accurate names. During my research I noticed we have some pictures and names that do not match what my research shows. I am not trying to find fault, these plant names can be very confusing and it may help others if we discuss this and see if we can add or change some information. Thank you.

With reference to my above post, here is an example.

The Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum' is the spider with the white center and the green edge. This one is a very popular variety but many people call it variegated ( I used to call it that until I did the research and found that in fact that is not correct.).

The Chlorophytum comosum 'Varigatum' is the spider with the green center and the white edge. This people call reverse variegated for the lack of the proper name.

There is a Chlorophytum comosum 'viridescence Hawaiian' that starts out as a baby variegated green and white, turning almost pure green before reproducing variegated babies.
This one is confused with the "pure" green until the babies arrive and depending on their colors you know what the plant is.

The C. Comosum 'Pictoratum' is another that has yellow center stripes.
The C. Comosum 'Bonnie' has the curly leaves.

The plain green is also a separate species.

I feel it would make it so much easier for someone who is wanting to start a collection of spiders to be able to see the difference in descriptions and photos in the database and I see a few flaws in our database regarding this information. I will be happy to discuss this with others.

I'll work on this with Jacquie.

@ZUZU
I began working on trying to help get these pictures to the correct plants. Here is the first one.
The entry of Chlorophytum comosum 'variegatum' has several pictures under it and if you look at them you will see that NONE of them belong to this plant. I sent you a picture of the correct plant. They are all Vittatum...the leaves have white centers with green edges/margins. They should be moved to Vittatum. Any spider pictures with the GREEN CENTER leaves should be added to variegatum. Hope this helps. On to the next one.

Instead of moving the images, Jacquie, I switched the names of the entries and only moved the comments to the appropriate entries. It's a quicker fix and the result is the same.

Carry on.

Oh, you scamp! You had images pending before I changed the names, so I had to move photos after all.

oops...sorry. Looks good.

I spent the last hour trying to find another name for the "solid" green or as some call it 'totally" green. It seems from what I can find tht the Chlorophytum comosum is the green spider. The others came from there. How can we add the totally green or plain green. It is said to be very rare and I have quite a few. I would like to list them on my list but I am not sure how we can do that?

Unless the plain green one has a cultivar name, we can't add an entry for it. The photos of it could be added to the C. comosum entry and a comment could be added to say that the plain green is rather rare, but people will still add the different "variegated" photos to that entry too if they don't know the cultivar name of their plants.

That does not make me happy but I am going to keep looking. I think that is just what it is. It must have been the very first one and it went from there. There is a history someplace and I will find it if it is out there.

If you see photos in the C. comosum entry that you can identify as Vittatum, or Bonnie, or one of the others, you can ask to have those moved to the appropriate entries. That will reduce the number of photos that aren't plain green.

What about the two entries for 'Variegatum' and 'Reverse Variegated'? Should those be merged? Are they just two different names for the same plant? Is it possible that 'Pictoratum' is the actual name for both of these, in which case all three should be merged?

@zuzu I reached out to my friend at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and he was kind enough to do some digging for us. Here is a thread that is going to be extremely helpful in identifying these different spider plants. If you can use it you are more than welcome and read the copyright at the top....the way I read it he is willing to share...this is a wonderful link for me because I want to collect more and I had no idea what to look for or what the differences were. If you click on each one the picture and comments will come up.

http://www.johnjearrard.co.uk/...

zuzu said:If you see photos in the C. comosum entry that you can identify as Vittatum, or Bonnie, or one of the others, you can ask to have those moved to the appropriate entries. That will reduce the number of photos that aren't plain green.

What about the two entries for 'Variegatum' and 'Reverse Variegated'? Should those be merged? Are they just two different names for the same plant? Is it possible that 'Pictoratum' is the actual name for both of these, in which case all three should be merged?

As soon as I get my orders shipped today I will work on the spider project.

I think these should be moved to their proper place.
- tarev this is a Vittatum
- tarev this is a Vittatum

plantladylin this is a Variegatum
songofjoy this is a Variegatum
Texas Plumeria87 is a Variegatum

That is all I can be sure of at this time . Paul2032 has some great pictures and I wonder if you ask him what their cultivars are he could tell you. Now that we have some listed he may be able to tell. He has a plain green there also which can stay. He has one that looks like Hawaiian but without the babies on I can not tell the difference...Hawaiian remember, has variegated babies when they are tiny. That is the only way I can tell them from some others.
Be back in a few if possible.

Thank you, Jacquie. I've moved the images.

@Paul2032 takes many of his photos at nurseries and he always uses as much information as possible from the plant tag. If there had been cultivar names on the tags, Paul would have posted the images in existing cultivar entries or proposed the addition of new cultivar entries, so I doubt that he can offer more ID information than he already has.

@zuzu That is too bad, they are great pictures and I was hoping but now that idea just bit the dust.
Reverse Variegated should be merged with Variegatum.
I think we have them pretty well separated at this time. If I see any others later I will give you a yell. Did you have time to look at that link I sent you? I am printing it out so I have it to study and compare the different plants.

There is one Paul2032 took that may be something other than a Vittatum...the center is very thin white...it is a beauty. If I can identify it we can start a new one for it. Until then it can stay with the others until someone tells us different.

Thank you so much for all your help. I think this will be so helpful to everyone and take away some of the confusion. We will just put the plain greens under Chlorophytum comosum until we can find a cultivar for them if that is o.k. with you.

I just bought two new ones yesterday. I will give you a yell when they arrive and we can add them at that time. Off to do more printing of the new information.

I've merged the Reverse Variegatum and Variegatum entries.

The link is very helpful, Jacquie. Your research is highly appreciated.

It is my pleasure Zuzu and if you need any help ever again do not hesitate to ask. Thank you again for your time and patience.

I looked at that link, JB, and one thing I noticed is that he mentions that the plain green ones can be grown from seeds from the variegated. My solid green plants all came as babies from my variegated plant, and subsequently produced solid green babies. So, are they a specific cultivar or a sport, or a throwback, or just what would you call them? Very confusing!

Given that choice of terms, Woofie, I'd be inclined to call them a throwback or a reversion. I once had a variety of striped spider plants, but all of them have reverted to solid green now. I'm no expert on Chlorophytum, however, so I'm not certain I'm right. Variegation may work in different ways in different genera.