Seek to identify plant with narrow leaves and long flowering stalks

[Jim Kent]

>From your description and as far as I can see from your photos, you
might well be harbouring an orchid!  The two or three plants I have all
tend to have the basal "bulb" you describe from which the leaves,
flowers or young bulbs sprout.
The most useful info comes from an individual flower - if you have a
picture of one try a friendly local botanist, horticulturist or a
florist  - there is usually no substitute for actually handling the
plant for a good identification.

Robin Boswell wrote:

>    I would be grateful if anyone could help identify the
> plant described below. You can find photos at
>
>      http://www.scms.rgu.ac.uk/staff/rab/plants.html
>
> which I suspect will be of more use than a written description,
> but here goes.  The most prominent feature of the plant
> is its monstrous "stalks", inviting comparison with
> a triffid.
>
>   It started life as a flattish green "bulb" (probably
> not the right term) of about 1.5cm diameter, with one
> end slightly more pointed than the other.  After a
> couple of years, the bulb was about 6cm wide, with
> the top half visible above the earth.  Numbers of shiny
> green leaves emerged, currently reaching a length of over 1m,
> and a width of just over 2cm at the widest point.  These
> initially grew upwards, but didn't have the strength to do so
> for long, later curling downwards and dangling.
> During the summer, rapidly growing stalks emerged from the bulb.
> which, given a window to lean against, were able to reach
> a height of 1.5 m or so. In ideally warm and sunny conditions,
> up to three stalks can appear over the course of one summer.
> A green "head of corn"(?) may appear at the end of a stalk,
> later blossoming into a strip of small white flowers.  Since
> the stalk is still growing, the flowering portion can
> eventually stretch to a length of 30 cm or so, though by
> that time most of the flowers are dead.
>
>   New small bulbs appear at the edge of the main bulb and can
> be broken off.  If placed in damp earth they can be used to
> propogate the plant.  If you don't break them off they
> sprout where they are, creating a luxuriant or untidy mess,
> depending on one's point of view.
>
>   I was given the original bulbs by a friend who didn't know
> what they were either,
>
>                Thank you for any suggestions,
>
>                         Robin Boswell.