Can you help me ID this house plant I saw at a local nursery? I've seen similar shrubs. Thanks....

Paul: I'm not certain but it sure looks like Ardisia to me, reminds me a lot of my A. elliptica but yours may be A. crenata:

http://www.floridata.com/ref/a...

http://garden.org/plants/brows...


edited to correct my spelling.

The blossoms certainly look the same. I googled Ardisia and looked at the pictures. None had the new red foliage but it did look similar. I wish nurseries would be a little more thorough on ID's. Thanks for your help.

Paul: Unless someone with more knowledge comes along I'd say that your plant is indeed Ardisia elliptica. I seem to forget to enlarge the thumbnail photo's sometimes and now that I've enlarged the pictures, your plant looks identical to my "Shoebutton Ardisia", A. elliptica. It has the same reddish stems, reddish new foliage, and the flower buds look identical too.

Thanks Lin. I think you are correct.

I think Lin is correct too. Although I couldn't find any photos on google with red new foliage I did find Ardisia polycephala ..

http://131.230.176.4/imgs/para...

Which I found the accepted name is Ardisia elliptica .. and a photo showing red new foliage too.

http://irapl.altervista.org/sc....

I discovered some errors on the ATP listing for Ardisia species too, there's two entries the same but with different spelling.

Marbleberry (Ardisia escallonioides)

Marlberry (Ardisia escallonoides)

The last link I gave should give the correct species.

I've always heard the common name for A. escallonoides is Marlberry but I see Marbleberry listed too. I do believe the correct spelling is escallonoides as shown at the ITIS site.

Copied from the ITIS site:


Results of: Search in every Kingdom for Common Name containing 'Ardisia'

Kingdom Plantae
coral ardisia -- Species: Ardisia crenata Sims -- accepted
shoe-button ardisia -- Species: Ardisia elliptica Thunb. -- accepted
shoebutton ardisia -- Species: Ardisia elliptica Thunb. -- accepted


Results of: Search in every Kingdom for Scientific Name containing 'Ardisia'

Kingdom Animalia
Calosopsyche ardisia Flint & Bueno-Soria, 1987 -- valid

Kingdom Plantae
Ardisia Sw. -- accepted -- marlberry
Ardisia crenata Sims -- accepted -- coral ardisia, hen's eyes
Ardisia crenulata Vent. -- not accepted
Ardisia elliptica Thunb. -- accepted -- shoe-button ardisia, shoebutton, shoebutton ardisia
Ardisia escallonoides Schiede & Deppe ex Schlecht. & Cham. -- accepted -- island marlberry, marbleberry, marlberry
Ardisia glauciflora Urban -- accepted -- ausubon
Ardisia luquillensis (Britt.) Alain -- accepted -- mountain marlberry
Ardisia obovata Desv. ex Hamilton -- accepted -- Guadeloupe marlberry
Ardisia polycephala auct. non Wallich ex A. DC. -- not accepted
Ardisia solanacea Roxb. -- accepted
Ardisia tinifolia O. Swartz -- accepted

Wow! do you enjoy doing the research? I'm certainly learning....but slowly. I've posted it to the data base and Dave accepted it.

LOL Paul, I love googling for information!

Research is fun Paul! I have to do it to make sure everything is correct, can't help myself, there's already too much misinformation on the internet so you have to be very careful of your sources.

Lin, I'm sure the duplicate entry for "Marbleberry (Ardisia escallonioides)" can be deleted, it's obviously not a separate species.

I do plant research in my job and I find it great fun!

I'm just a fledgling trying to learn but it is fun. I didn't know how everyone felt about posts asking for help in finding an ID for a plant and am glad to hear that some of you enjoy it, I have more I will add occasionally. Thanks.

Paul: That's what this Plant ID Forum is for ... so that we can help each other in identifying our plants. Just begin a new thread for each plant you want identified so they don't get lost in the midst of others. There are some really knowledgeable people here willing to assist ... they've helped me numerous times so with identity. Start as many threads as you want and we'll all have fun trying to help you put a name to your plants.