Another question about eyes, pips, etc.

bkay2000

15 years ago

I'm not quite clear about the nomenclature. Can someone explain it to me? When someone says I received a plant from X with three eyes, do they mean the plant had three sets of leaves? I bought a Paul's Glory and it had three distinct sets of leaves from the same center point, is that eyes?

This is a second year hosta just breaking dormancy. Obviously, the crown is the center, hairly thing. So what are all those sprouts on the crown called?

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This is an older hosta. It probably has 100 of these "pointy" things that come up each year. Each one becomes several leaves. What are they called? If it has a crown, I'm not sure where it is.

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This is a hosta in it's second year. It has the sprouts off the crown, but also the errant sprout or two over on the right side, not attached to the crown. What are they?

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Thanks,

bkay

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Comments (6)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
15 years ago
hey broiler ....

i see 7 eyes breaking dormancy in the first pic ... though some are not very strong ...

it has nothing to do with leaves ...

last pic.. one very dominant eye budded out.. and 4 minor eyes are now sprouting... probably due to whatever damaged the first ... and one coming out of the ground ... and its not planted at proper depth ...

ken

ps:.. get it.. bkay broiler????

Here is a link that might be useful: first pic.. the purple things are eyes or pips ... third pic... 3 eye division with roots
Steve Massachusetts
15 years ago
EYE Ã¯Â¿Â½ an undeveloped or dormant shoot; dormant bud.

Pip is not listed in the dictionary, but I think it is generally used to represent an eye that is beginning to leave dormancy.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta Dictionary
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KaylyRed
15 years ago
Yep, what you called "sprouts" and "pointy things" are the eyes--the things a lot of us count in the spring to see if our hostas are increasing (or, if we're unlucky, decreasing) in size. You'll also hear people refer to them as pips.

I'm still learning about hostas, but I cringed when I saw that last picture. As Ken said, the hosta isn't planted at the proper depth. You don't want to bury the crown (leads to rot), but you DO want the roots covered.

Hope that helps!
bkay2000
Original Author
15 years ago
So, when someone says Nursery X sent me a "john smith" with three eyes, what do they mean?

bkay
KaylyRed
15 years ago
They mean it's a plant consisting of roots, a crown, and three separate shoots/sprouts/pointy things. Basically, an eye holds a cluster of leaves.

It's easy counting eyes on an emerging hosta, because each "pointy thing" is an eye. When a hosta is leafed out, the eye is sort of like a trunk that gathers a clump of stems and leaves together, sort of like a fist clutching a bouquet.

Not sure if that description helps, but it's the best I've got. :)
Pieter zone 7/8 B.C.
15 years ago
In the American Hosta Society Glossary of Terms compiled by C.H.Falstad,III and published in The Hosta Journal Vol. 29, No. 1, page 25, you will NOT find any reference to the term 'eye'. Oddly though, if you follow Steve's link to the AHS Hosta Dictionary it is referenced, go figure.

In common Hosta parlance the term is applied rather loosely to dormant buds as well as shoots, mostly shoots, which clearly is incorrect. They are only 'eyes' when they are dormant buds, which means the shoot has not yet begun to come up from it. In other words, you would only see 'eyes' if you were to dig up a dormant Hosta in the winter. As soon as the dormant buds begin to swell and start sending up cataphylls it ceases to be an eye, it is becoming a shoot, it is no longer dormant.

So, odds are when someone says Nursery X sent me a 3-eyed Hosta, following incorrect, but common, Hosta vernacular they are telling you they received a plant, probably bare-rooted for shipping purposes, with 3 shoots on it and depending on when it was shipped, the leaves may have begun to unfurl.

Personally I try to refrain from using the term 'eyes' on Hosta crowns, I prefer to use 'dormant bud' and 'shoot'. To me, eyes are what you find on a potato....but that's just me being pedantic. And I have to keep reminding myself that some Hostas do NOT exhibit a stoloniferous growth habit but a rhizomatous one. Stolons go above ground, rhizomes below.

Pieter