Peperomia flowers

[soobie]

Hi all, here's a non-orchid question for you. Does anyone know what kind of Peperomia this is? And a related question: do Peperomias have separate and different-looking flowers for males and females?

I noticed a few flowers on this plant today, and unless I'm completely delusional and dreamed the first flowering, they're different this time. I could have sworn that the first flowers were a white nondescript spike like a typical Peperomia flower. This time, they're small purple tubes with white hairs on the outside.

Please tell me I'm not losing my mind! ;-)

[soobie]

Ok, it won't let me upload more than one picture. Here's another, with a different set of flowers that are 't quite open yet, and showing a bit more of the leaves/stem.

[WhiteRabbit]

Cool! I have no idea, but hopefully someone else does!

[gnathaniel]

Definitely not a Peperomia, looks like Aeschynanthus radicans or similar. The fuzzy purple tube is the calyx out of which pretty red flowers should soon grow.

As far as I know, Peperomia flowers are always 'perfect' (hermaphroditic), though I'm no expert so maybe someone will correct me on that.

[soobie]

Huh. I looked that up and it does indeed look like my plant. I must have been mistaken about that nondescript Peperomia-type flower spike on this plant. Weird.

Poor plant, I've been calling it by the wrong name for a year!

[Paul]

While there is the odd exception here and there, generally speaking Peperomia flowers are the epitome of boring. For example:
http://www.plantoftheweek.org/image/peperomia2.jpg

[Vanda lover]

I think it looks more like a hoya, but I could be wrong.

[soobie]

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

I was not, in fact, delusional when I thought the first blooming of this plant was different and Peperomia-looking.

The problem was that I have two different plants growing the same pot.

This pot was given to me by a friend, with two tiny little cuttings in it, each about an inch long. She told me it was two cuttings off the same Peperomia plant, in case one failed to root.

They grew and grew, and I guess I never really paid attention since that pot was just a green backdrop for a pretty orchid. Once I saw the first Peperomia flower last spring, I paid even less attention.

The Peperomia is sending up more flowers now; just noticed them today. The Aeschynanthus plant still has the purple calyxes, and I can start to see the red flowers developing inside them. If I look at the leaves and actually pay attention, it's obvious that there are two different but similar types of paired, oval, green leaves, each of which originates from the original two cuttings.

So there you go. One pot, two different cuttings. I feel really stupid, but I'm so glad I was not dreaming up the first flower I saw in this pot!