How do you find a flower in February on Martha’s Vineyard?

Outside of a few wild exceptions such as witch hazel or snowdrops, you may need to come inside and discover the domestics. The florists and greenhouses hold a plethora of petals, but I recently had my own beautiful blooms on my windowsill. For the first time ever (or maybe that I can remember), my spider plant flowered.

Some of you (especially my friend Dave) may roll eyes at the fact that All Outdoors is going indoors. But, so be it – we all need a little bit of botanical inspiration on these recent cold and windy days.

Spider plants hail from tropical and southern Africa, but have taken hold as one of the most common and easy to manage house plants. Chlorophytum comosum well describes this species, translating to green plant with tufts of hair. Those tufts, also called spiderettes, plantlets, or pups, propagate the species by rooting themselves once they find a substrate, and starting new plants.

Not surprisingly, the more common seed method of reproduction is possible, though not probable for this houseplant since it is pollinated by insects (which hopefully are of limited supply in your domicile). Spider plant flowers, however, will appear as white-petalled appendages on the long stems of the mother plants.

These flowers (there can be a few or more on one stem) are quick blooming and quick disappearing and require long days and warm temperatures. Perhaps it was the longer light and south-facing window that tricked my plants into flowering. Or it could be that the plant was mature and pot bound, which also encourages blooming. No matter the reason, I was happy to see those delicate flowers.

Though first named in scientific literature by Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg, he was not the original observer of this plant. The Nguni people of the Bantu Tribe of cattle herders indigenous to southern Africa knew and used this plant for medicine and food. The roots were reportedly consumed and the leaves could be a potherb, though both may cause some gastric distress for the uninitiated. Consumption is not recommended today for people or pets.

Thunberg did find some level of notoriety beyond the naming of this common house plant. He was an apostle of Carl Linnaeus, and his travels to Africa and Japan were documented in his and others’ books of botany and medicine. Thunberg taught the Japanese to treat syphilis, while they taught him acupuncture – a suitable trade of skills. He became lauded as the father of botany in southern Africa and a pioneer of occidental medicine in Japan.

While his fame may have faded, spider plant’s popularity has not waned. Its notoriety had a recent bump after a study identified this plant as a botanical air purifier. The report showed that spider plants can clean indoor air by absorbing chemicals such as formaldehyde, xylene, benzene, and carbon monoxide. While true, further studies revealed that it would take more than 70 plants to manage absorption of these compounds resulting from the typical furnishing and contents of a 1,500 square foot house.

The flowers on my spider plant have already disappeared, though the length of daylight continues to increase, planting a seed of hope for the coming spring.

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.