Curculigo - Weevil Plant

(Curcu'ligo)

DESCRIPTION: These are tender plants that are grown for their ornamental foliage. They come from Malaya and tropical Asia. The plants grow about 3 feet high. Their lance-shaped, plicate (crinkled from top to bottom), evergreen leaves grow directly from the rhizome. The leafstalks are one-third the length of the leaves and they overlap one another at their bases to form a thick stem. Small bunches of flowers having six petals are produced in the axils of the leaves.

POTTING: These plants require a minimum winter temperature of 60 degrees. They should be planted in well-drained pots filled with equal parts of peat moss or humus and loam. Sand should be added abundantly. Repotting should be done in February or March. Remove a bit of the old soil with a pointed stick and the plants are set in slightly larger pots. Curculigo make very attractive plants when set in a prepared bed of soil in the conservatory. During the summer, the atmosphere must be kept humid by dampening the floor of the greenhouse; they also need a lot of water at the roots, though much less is required during the winter, it shouldn't remain dry.

PROPAGATION: Suckers or offshoots may be detached and potted in small pots in March.

VARIETIES: C. capitulata and its variegated forms, variegata and striata and C. latifolia.

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