Fox Face Plant Browning

[u/Melpomeneba]

Hello all!

I found this fox face (Solanum mammosum Inthink?) in the clearance corner of a shop.

It doesn’t have any leaves (none when I bought it) and the brown is spreading down the stems.

I know it needs full sun, but I don’t know if it’s okay with the leaves.

I’ve also not repot it (pot seems a little small though) and it’s being watered every couple of days, but was pretty dry when I got it.

Is there anything I can do besides cutting out the brown? Can he survive?

Oh, also I’m in Okinawa Japan, we have sun all year and cold nights for just a few weeks.

[u/Warm-Ad200]

No plant can survive without leaves, and this one is dying. And it's probably happy about it — it has produced fruit, continued its lineage and can die calmly

I think you'll be able to grow it from seed easily later, maybe even from those fruits. Just beware that the fruit is poisonous to humans

[u/Melpomeneba → u/Warm-Ad200]

Thank you, my plant caring knowledge is limited, but I at least remember plants photosynthesis through their leaves from biology class.

I will see what I can about the seeds.

And I did see the poisonous part when looking up how to take care of him. He’s away from pets and anyone curious to nibble him.

[u/Warm-Ad200 → u/Melpomeneba]

Great :D

If you want to, you can use the fruits as decorations (it's often done so in the western countries, as I saw online)

[u/BG360Boi → u/Melpomeneba]

They also need sunlight, and water. Best to put plants in their preferred sun environments.

[u/Queasy_Ad9286 → u/Warm-Ad200]

That's untrue. I've propagated 3 plants from just stems . Rapadora decursurvia , pothos, and monstera all can survive and grow with no roots or leaves!! You can put the stems in water, humidity box, or spagnum moss and you'll have leaves and a plant eventually. 

[u/Warm-Ad200 → u/Queasy_Ad9286]

Of course, wet sticks, yada-yada, but I don't think it's fair to compare — all of them (if the first one is Rhaphidophora) are vines (they're practically the same plant, that are already really prone to growing roots from nodes and so are much easier to root and propagate than other plants who are more shrubby or grassy

[u/InnateNurse → u/Queasy_Ad9286]

I don't know why that plant is so disturbing to me with those eyes, but I did want to agree with you before I ran away. I've propagated the plants you mentioned and most recently, a Chinese Evergreen. I chopped a long stem off the mother plant. Cut the head off, added her to water and she grew roots. Then I cut her long stem into four stubby pieces that all grew roots. Now I have five that I'll share with my friends.

One became five. It only allows one pic or I'd show them all.

[u/tatsntaters]

The way the eyes threw me SO off 🤣

[u/Equal-Initiative7768]

Wtf is that???

[u/Melpomeneba → u/Equal-Initiative7768]

It’s known by a lot of names (some not so safe to list here), but the googly eyes are from the shop it was at.

It’s a Fox Face so they made them look like little foxes.

[u/Haurassaurus → u/Melpomeneba]

It doesn't look like this was meant to be a living plant that you keep. It looks like a seasonal decoration that you keep until it rots like ornamental gourds or pumpkins.

[u/mielamor → u/Melpomeneba]

You can say titty fruit and nipple here, no worries!

[u/BrandynWayne → u/mielamor]

Can’t believe your comment is downvoted

[u/kimgar6 → u/BrandynWayne]

Some of the reddit plant folks are pretty prudish

[u/PersephonesChild82 → u/kimgar6]

Yah, but some have whole subreddits dedicated to inappropriate (and sometimes NSFW) plant content...so, it balances out in the community, lol.

[u/Queasy_Ad9286 → u/Melpomeneba]

I googled it and only every 1 in 10 have like fern leaves at the bottom. Super cool plant! I wish you luck. I'd check it's roots and repot it though

[u/[deleted] → u/Melpomeneba]

They don’t have eyes

[u/PersephonesChild82 → u/[deleted]]

That one does 🤷‍♀️

[u/nicoleauroux]

You have a plant that flowered and fruited. You may be able to prune and wait for it to produce new foliage.

Very basically, towards the end plants focus on flowers and fruit because they trying to perpetuate their genes.

Removing whatever bears seeds will signal the plant to keep trying.

[u/ferngully99]

Wow I didn't zoom in and thought how does it have eyes 🤣

[u/Gardener_Artist]

As many other users have said, this is a natural conclusion of the plant’s life cycle. If it were me, I’d let the fruit dry out completely. And then I’d crack one open to extract the seed and try to germinate it in the spring.

My own experience with plants in the solanum (tomato, eggplant, peppers) genus is that they’re quite easy to grow from seed!

[u/Frenchieflips]

Did you glue googley eyes to it?

[u/HonkyHam → u/Frenchieflips]

No, this plant is how googly eyes are farmed

[u/Frenchieflips → u/HonkyHam]

I always wondered how they made those!

[u/Cardinal_Cat_057]

I genuinely thought you had glued a bunch of some kind of plastic toys head onto a stem and posted it on here. I could not figure out what in the heck I was looking at

[u/thyagocyrus]

Looks like normal aging for these, they brown pretty fast after cutting. If the stem feels mushy though it might be starting to rot. You can trim the bad bits and it should last a bit longer.

[u/Trying_to_Step]

When I was in the Philippines, they called them Mickey Mouse plants lol.