50 Fun Facts About Houseplant

Where is Monstera deliciosa native to?

The genus name comes from the Latin for 'monstrous', a nod to the naturally holed leaves. The ripe fruit is edible and reportedly tastes like fruit salad.

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

The unripe fruit is full of needle-like calcium oxalate crystals, so patience matters.

Golden pothos is native to which island?

Despite names like Ceylon creeper and Solomon Islands ivy, it comes from the Society Islands and has gone wild across the tropics.

Why is pothos nicknamed 'devil's ivy'?

It is also very hard to kill. The plant rarely flowers in cultivation without hormone treatment; a spontaneous flowering was last reported in 1964.

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?

It is native to tropical West Africa from Nigeria to the Congo, and its fibers were once used to make bowstrings.

When does Dracaena trifasciata open its stomata to exchange gases?

It uses crassulacean acid metabolism, a drought adaptation shared with many succulents, which is why it is said to 'breathe' after dark.

Which houseplant is also known as 'viper's bowstring hemp'?

Its leaves yield a strong fiber 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?

Unlike true lilies, which can cause kidney failure in cats, it is only mildly toxic thanks to calcium oxalate crystals.

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

The real flowers sit on the spadix inside it. Heinrich Wilhelm Schott named the genus Spathiphyllum, literally 'leaf spathe', in 1832.

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

The leaves can reach 45 cm long. It grows in moist lowland forests from Sierra Leone to Cameroon.

In which decade did Ficus lyrata become a houseplant craze?

Indoors in temperate regions it stays smaller and rarely flowers or fruits.

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

The rubber plant was once tapped for rubber in its native range but plays no part in modern commercial production.

Aloe vera originates in which region?

The species name 'vera' means 'true' in Latin. The gel is rich in the polysaccharide acemannan.

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

Native to eastern Africa, it only went into wide commercial production in the mid-1990s.

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

Its other names include Zanzibar gem, eternity plant and aroid palm; the foliage resembles the cycad Zamia.

The name Philodendron comes from Greek words meaning what?

Many species climb trees as hemiepiphytes. It is the second-largest genus in the arum family.

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

Roughly 1,000 species, native from Mexico to Argentina, many growing as epiphytes. The 'flower' is a colored spathe under a spadix.

African violets are native to which country?

Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire sent seeds home from the Usambara Mountains in 1892. They are not related to true violets.

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

Carl Ludwig Blume described it in 1825; most species grow in Indonesia and the Philippines as epiphytes.

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.

The jade plant, Crassula ovata, is native to which country?

Yellowish leaves come from carotenoid pigments made to protect it from harsh sun. It shares the nickname 'money tree' with Pachira aquatica.

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

He took cuttings home via India in 1946 and it spread across Scandinavia by hand. Kew botanists only identified it in the 1980s.

Pilea peperomioides is a relative of which familiar plant?

Its round leaves earn it names like UFO plant, pancake plant and lefse plant. It grows wild only in Yunnan and Sichuan.

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

The creeping succulent from the Cape provinces was named for British succulent specialist Gordon Rowley.

The poinsettia takes its English name from whom?

Joel Roberts Poinsett introduced it to the US in the 1820s. The Aztecs had cultivated it for medicine, and there is a push to revive the Nahuatl name cuetlaxochitl.

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

Paul Ecke Ranch grows about half the world's supply and 70 percent of the US market.

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

The genus is native to 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?

Their roots mostly serve as anchors. The genus of about 650 species includes Spanish moss.

Why is Dieffenbachia called 'dumb cane'?

The genus honors Joseph Dieffenbach, head gardener at Vienna's botanical garden. In Costa Rica, poison frogs deposit tadpoles in its leaf axils.

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

It prefers darker, rough, non-reflective surfaces with a near-neutral pH, and can climb 20 to 30 meters.

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

Joseph Banks described the South African species in 1788. Its other common name, crane flower, compares it to a crowned crane's head.

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

There they bloom in the Southern Hemisphere autumn and carry a local name that reflects it.

What is the Christmas cactus called in its home country?

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?

The Brazilian native lies flat by day and folds up after dark, as if for evening prayers.

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

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?

Sold in shops simply as 'ficus', it can reach 30 meters in the wild and is notorious for dropping leaves when moved.

Which houseplant family includes both Spanish moss and the pineapple?

About 3,700 species, almost all from the Americas; '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?

Longer internodes and smaller leaves increase 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?

Many cases are caused by Phytophthora water molds rather than true fungi.

What do the larvae of most fungus gnats feed on?

The adults, just 2 to 8 mm long, are weak fliers that tend to walk over the soil surface.

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

Nathaniel Ward's ferns had been dying from coal smoke. Robert Fortune later used the cases to smuggle 20,000 tea plants out of Shanghai.

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

It was designed with space stations in mind, and 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?

It combines the nearai ('no pot') bonsai style with kusamono planting.

Which US state was producing more than 55% of American houseplants by 1960?

Commercial production had started in California in the 1920s with kentia palms and pothos before Florida took over.

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.

How did orchids first arrive in Europe as houseplants in 1818?

German ivy reached the United States as a houseplant in the same century.

Roughly how many houseplants does the Netherlands produce each year for the European market?

In the US, Florida's climate still makes it the centre of tropical houseplant production.

Sir Hugh Platt's 1660 book on growing plants indoors carried what title?

Wealthy 17th-century British households grew imported citrus in orangeries, and even aloes were cultivated indoors.