50 Fun Facts About Houseplant

Where is Monstera deliciosa native to?

Southern Mexico to Panama is the natural range of Monstera deliciosa, which climbs rainforest trees there; the genus name comes from the Latin for 'monstrous', a nod to its size and naturally holed leaves.

What does the specific epithet 'deliciosa' in Monstera deliciosa refer to?

Its edible fruit earned the species the name deliciosa: when fully ripe it tastes like a mix of pineapple and banana, but unripe fruit is full of needle-like calcium oxalate crystals.

Golden pothos is native to which island?

Mo'orea in French Polynesia, in the Society Islands, is the native home of Epipremnum aureum; despite names like Ceylon creeper and Solomon Islands ivy, it has merely gone wild across the tropics.

Why is pothos nicknamed 'devil's ivy'?

It stays green even when kept in the dark and is almost impossible to kill, hence 'devil's ivy'; the plant almost never flowers in cultivation because of a defect in its gibberellin hormone production.

Where does the spider plant, Chlorophytum comosum, come from?

Carl Peter Thunberg first described it in 1794 in his work on the plants of the Cape. The dangling plantlets root wherever they touch soil.

Dracaena trifasciata, or mother-in-law's tongue, was known under what genus name until 2017?

Sansevieria was its genus until molecular studies folded it into Dracaena in 2017; it is native to tropical West Africa from Nigeria to the Congo.

When does Dracaena trifasciata open its stomata to exchange gases?

Only at night: it uses crassulacean acid metabolism, a drought adaptation shared with many succulents, keeping stomata shut by day to save water and opening them after dark to take in carbon dioxide.

Which houseplant's tough leaf fibres earned it the old name 'bowstring hemp'?

Snake plant leaves yield a strong fibre once used for bowstrings; the same plant is called mother-in-law's tongue and Saint George's sword.

Is the peace lily a true lily?

No, it is an aroid in the family Araceae, a cousin of the philodendrons; unlike true lilies, which cause kidney failure in cats, it is only mildly irritating thanks to calcium oxalate crystals.

The white 'petal' of a peace lily is actually what?

A spathe, a modified leaf, surrounds the spadix that carries the real flowers; Heinrich Wilhelm Schott named the genus Spathiphyllum, literally 'leaf spathe', in 1832.

Ficus lyrata's common name comes from its leaves resembling which object?

A fiddle is the resemblance behind 'fiddle-leaf fig', whose violin-shaped leaves can reach 45 cm long; the species grows wild in lowland forests from Sierra Leone to Cameroon.

In which decade did Ficus lyrata become a houseplant craze?

The 2010s made the fiddle-leaf fig the decade's 'it' plant, a fixture of design magazines and Instagram interiors; indoors it stays smaller and rarely flowers or fruits.

In Meghalaya, India, the roots of Ficus elastica are trained into what?

Living bridges: Khasi and Jaintia villagers guide the aerial roots of Ficus elastica across streams over decades until they knit into walkable spans; the rubber plant was once tapped for latex but plays no part in commercial rubber production.

Aloe vera originates in which region?

The Arabian Peninsula is where Aloe vera is thought to have originated; it has been grown around the Mediterranean for millennia, 'vera' means 'true' in Latin, and the gel is rich in the polysaccharide acemannan.

The ZZ plant stores water in what kind of underground structure?

A potato-like rhizome beneath the soil stores water, letting the ZZ plant ride out months of drought in its native eastern Africa; the fleshy leaf stalks store more.

Which nurseries began propagating the ZZ plant on a wide commercial scale around 1996?

Dutch nurseries started propagating Zamioculcas zamiifolia on a wide commercial scale around 1996; its other names include Zanzibar gem and eternity plant, and the foliage resembles the cycad Zamia.

The name Philodendron comes from Greek words meaning what?

Love tree, from Greek philo (love) and dendron (tree), describes how many species climb trees as hemiepiphytes; the genus is the second-largest in the arum family.

What is the largest genus in the arum family, ahead of Philodendron?

Anthurium, with roughly 1,000 species native from Mexico to Argentina, many of them epiphytes, is the arum family's largest genus; the glossy red 'flamingo flower' is its best-known houseplant.

African violets are native to which country?

Tanzania's Usambara Mountains are where Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire collected the seeds he sent home in 1892; the genus was named Saintpaulia after him, and it is unrelated to true violets.

The orchid genus Phalaenopsis is named for its resemblance to what?

A moth is the resemblance: Carl Ludwig Blume, who described the genus in 1825, thought the flowers looked like moths in flight; most species grow as epiphytes from Indonesia to the Philippines.

The Boston fern's arching-frond mutation was discovered in an 1894 shipment from which city?

The species itself grows wild in humid forests from Florida to South America; only the 'Bostoniensis' form arches gracefully.

Which nickname does the jade plant, Crassula ovata, share with the Malabar chestnut, Pachira aquatica?

Money tree is a nickname both the jade plant and Pachira aquatica carry, each sold as a bringer of wealth; Crassula ovata is a succulent in the stonecrop family, while Pachira is a mallow relative.

Which Norwegian missionary carried the Chinese money plant out of Yunnan in the 1940s?

Agnar Espegren took cuttings home to Norway via India in 1946, and the plant spread across Scandinavia by hand; Kew botanists only identified it in the 1980s.

Pilea peperomioides is a relative of which familiar plant?

Nettles are its kin: Pilea belongs to the nettle family Urticaceae, though it lacks stinging hairs; its round leaves earn it names like UFO plant and pancake plant, and it grows wild only in Yunnan and Sichuan.

String of pearls, Curio rowleyanus, is botanically a relative of which plant?

Daisies are its relatives: the plant sits in the aster family Asteraceae and was long called Senecio rowleyanus; the creeping succulent from the Cape provinces is named for British succulent specialist Gordon Rowley.

The poinsettia takes its English name from whom?

The first US minister to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, sent the plant north in the 1820s; the Aztecs had cultivated it, calling it cuetlaxochitl.

What is the truth about poinsettia toxicity for pets and children?

It is not dangerous, despite its reputation: a review of more than 20,000 poison-centre cases found no fatalities, and the worst effects are mild stomach upset or skin irritation from the milky sap.

Aglaonema, grown for centuries in Asia as a luck-bringer, is commonly called what?

Chinese evergreen is the trade name for Aglaonema, native to the humid, shady forests of tropical Asia and New Guinea, which is why it tolerates dim rooms.

Air plants, Tillandsia, absorb water through what specialized structures on their leaves?

Trichomes, tiny scale-like hairs coating the leaves, pull moisture and nutrients straight from the air; the roots mostly serve as anchors, and the genus of about 650 species includes Spanish moss.

Why is Dieffenbachia called 'dumb cane'?

Its raphides can cause temporary inability to speak: chewing the plant drives needle-like calcium oxalate crystals into the mouth, swelling tongue and throat; the genus honours Joseph Dieffenbach, head gardener at Vienna's Schönbrunn Palace.

How does English ivy, Hedera helix, cling to walls and trees?

Aerial rootlets with matted pads sprout along the stems and glue themselves to bark or stone; the vine prefers rough, non-reflective surfaces and can climb 20 to 30 metres.

The bird of paradise, Strelitzia reginae, honors which queen in its name?

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, George III's queen, is honoured in Strelitzia reginae, which Joseph Banks named in 1788; its other common name, crane flower, compares the bloom to a crowned crane's head.

Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera) grow wild in the coastal mountains of which country?

Brazil's coastal mountains near Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are home to Schlumbergera, which grows there as an epiphyte on trees and rocks in shady, humid forest.

What is the Christmas cactus called in its home country?

Flor de Maio (May flower) is the name in its home country, reflecting its autumn bloom south of the equator; cultivars split into the Truncata group, often sold as Thanksgiving or crab cactus, and the later-blooming Buckleyi group.

The prayer plant, Maranta leuconeura, gets its name from what habit?

Its leaves fold upright at night, like hands pressed in prayer, then lie flat again by day; the movement, called nyctinasty, is driven by a swollen joint at the base of each leaf.

The cast-iron plant, Aspidistra elatior, is native to which country?

Japan's southern islands, along with Taiwan, are the plant's true home, though it is often assumed to be Chinese; a 2018 study found it is pollinated mainly by fungus gnats.

The weeping fig, Ficus benjamina, is the official tree of which city?

Bangkok adopted the weeping fig as its official tree; sold in shops simply as 'ficus', it can reach 30 metres in the wild and is notorious for dropping leaves when moved.

Which houseplant family includes both Spanish moss and the pineapple?

Bromeliads number about 3,700 species, almost all from the Americas, with a single West African exception; 'tank' bromeliads store water in cups formed by overlapping leaf bases.

A houseplant that grows long, weak, pale stems reaching for a window is showing what?

Etiolation is the stretching response to low light: longer internodes, smaller leaves and little chlorophyll raise the odds of reaching light; seedlings grown in darkness show the extreme form.

Root rot is more common in indoor plants than outdoor ones mainly because of what?

Overwatering and poor drainage leave potted roots sitting in airless, waterlogged soil; many cases are caused by Pythium and Phytophthora water moulds, which thrive in saturated soil.

Which houseplant pest hides under a waxy brown shell and barely moves as an adult?

Scale insects spend adulthood fixed in place beneath a waxy or armoured shell, sucking sap; the females of many species never move again once settled, so they are often mistaken for bumps on the stem.

The Wardian case, forerunner of the terrarium, was promoted by a London physician after ferns thrived in what?

A sealed glass bottle holding moth cocoons sprouted a fern seedling in 1829, showing Nathaniel Ward that glass kept out the London coal smoke killing his ferns; Robert Fortune used the cases to ship tea plants from China to India.

The 1989 NASA Clean Air Study tested houseplants against which pollutants?

Benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene were the three pollutants the study, led by B. C. Wolverton, tracked in sealed chambers; designed with space stations in mind, its findings are often overstated for ordinary homes.

Kokedama, the Japanese moss-ball style of growing a plant without a pot, is sometimes nicknamed what?

Poor man's bonsai is the nickname, since the moss-wrapped root ball needs no pot or costly training; the style grew out of the nearai bonsai display, in which a root-bound plant is shown without its pot, and kusamono accessory plantings.

Which Florida city calls itself the 'Indoor Foliage Capital of the World'?

Apopka, northwest of Orlando, adopted the 'Indoor Foliage Capital of the World' tag for the greenhouses and shade houses that ship potted foliage plants across the United States.

Postwar interest in houseplants in the US and UK was boosted by which region's design style?

Tropical plants like bromeliads and birds of paradise also became fixtures of tiki-themed rooms in the same era.

Which flowering plant was the most affordable houseplant for the average Victorian Briton?

They sat on window ledges while wealthier homes showed off palms, cast-iron plants and ferns in Wardian cases.

By a famous if doubted story, how did the first Cattleya orchids reach England in 1818?

As packing material for other plants, says the legend: William Cattley rescued the pseudobulbs wrapped around a shipment of tropical plants, flowered them, and John Lindley named the genus Cattleya in his honour in 1821.

Which town in the Netherlands hosts the world's largest flower and plant auction?

Aalsmeer hosts the Royal FloraHolland auction, where cut flowers and potted plants are sold on descending-price clocks in one of the largest buildings in the world by footprint.

The 1660 edition of Sir Hugh Plat's guide to growing plants indoors carried what title?

Garden of Eden was the title under which Plat's 1608 Floraes Paradise was reissued after his death, with a 1660 edition; it advised on raising plants indoors while wealthy households grew citrus in orangeries.