A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Anyone heard of a "flying fish plant"?

We were given a plant that the previous owners called a flying fish plant. It's leaves are narrow and silvery green and it's flowers are pink and look like flying fish leaping across the leaves. Any help would be appreciated because it is very unusual and I'd like to know how to care for it. Thanks.

this will hopefully do the trick.

flying fish plant

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

You did it!!!!!

(I don't know what it is, but I am confident
there will be other's thru that can and will
help you in your quest!!!)

Very glad you got your picture to work!!!

let me know if you remember....

What a beautiful plant! I don't think I have ever seen one like this. The leaves look similar to the goldfish plant. Unbelievable how many flowers you have on it!

Shirl

I've never seen a plant like this, but it very beautiful, Thanks for sharing the photo.

I am not a house plant person,
but I thinnk I've seen it too...

I think someone's posted it here....
Like at least a year ago..

HOUSE plant ARCHIVES?????
Maybe

Has Donna or Rugby been thru???

i appreciate your continued efforts. hopefully someone will come across something that can help.

Wow, that is beautiful! I think Shirl was right on - goldfish plant

I found the one I was thinking about
in the archives.. 17b - A Whatzit & What2do . . . /Ended up being a GOLD FISH PLANT

Hey Mary, Good going!!!
I knew someone would come thru
and help with an id...

Wish I could take the credit but I gotta give it to ShirlS - I just checked out what she said and compared pics -- but one of these days I will get one of these mysteries! I will!

I have a goldfish plant, but it hasn't flowered like that since I first bought it. :p

but, Shirley (love your forum name!) said that the flowers are pink (they don't look it to me ), and I thought all goldfish plant flowers were orange?

Where's Will when we need him?

by the way... that's one gorgeous plant! Enjoy it!

Thank you all so much! Now I can make sure that i take care of it properly!

Now I want one! I looked around for the longest time, & at first I thought it looked like some type of pepper plant. (No dice, but I sure learned a lot about peppers! I think my eye balls are bleeding from all the reading I got lost in!)

Then after I ruled out peppers, from looking at the leaves I thought it might be in the same family as the Wandering Jew. So far as I can find, it isn't, but just like the Wandering Jew, this Nematanthus "Marianne" , in the Gesneriad family, can be propagated in the same way. (Stem or leaf cuttings, in soil or water.) No wonder they call it a Goldfish plant! Nobody would be able to stay in the conversation if they had to pronounce the other names!,

It also has real itty bitty seeds, which need to be babysat, but are said to germinate fairly fast. I see that there are lots of places online that sell the plant, but personally I like the challenge of starting plants from scratch (as in scratching around in the soil & playing in water! chuckle - tee hee!)

I only found 1 other photo of this plant on the whole WWW that even came close to looking as good a Shirley's! Way to go, girl!

Patty, I hear ya. As soon as I saw it, I thought, oh, gotta have it. I gotta find a 12 step program!

Thanks for the compliments - I wish I could take the credit, but as I said, it was a gift from a woman whom I used to help out when she left town - I would take care of her greenhouse. Now she is being placed in a home because she can no longer take care of herself. So, she gave me this plant from her greenhouse. She was an amazing gardener. Good luck with your endeavour to find/grow one of your own!

You can find more pictures of goldfish/guppy plant at

http://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/catalog/photo_db/N.htm

Yayyyyyyyyy!! Glad you found out what it is, Shirley. The flowers threw me off initially, because I have not seen them that deep a color. Only orange. In any case as you said... Now you can care for it, so it stays just as beautiful!

Mary, thanks for scouting out a picture to identify the plant without question.

Have a wonderful day everyone

Shirl

They are selling the Goldfish plant at our local grocery store for 7.99. They had the solid green and some that had varigaited leaves.

Is there a Godfish plant with varigated leaves?

I THINK IT IS A SHRIMP plant......
I USED TO OWN ONE......

IT IS GORGOUS.


SAVE ME A CUTTING IN THE spring..
DODGE

Wow, this is an old topic. I found it because I was doing some research on the plant, so I felt the need to reply with what I had. By the way, the pictures were very useful for my project.

The Flying Goldfish plant or simply Goldfish plant is from the family Columnea. It is a flowering shrub native to tropical North America and the Carribean. It's a Gesneriad, in the same family as Saintpaulia, the African Violet and grows under very similar care - the Flying Goldfish plant prefers more light, however.

Oh i would have been wrong I thought
it looked something like mine
bettyboop
hope i made small enough
if not sorry