The Plant Index
Every plant entry is hand-checked against Kew POWO, Missouri Botanical Garden, and ASPCA for toxicity — with sources cited on every page. Images are drawn from Wikimedia Commons and other licensed sources with attribution.
Delta maidenhair fern
Adiantum raddianum is the delta maidenhair fern — a delicate Pteridaceae from tropical American forest understorey, grown indoors for sprays of small bright-green pinnules on dark wiry stems.
Urn plant
Aechmea fasciata is a large epiphytic bromeliad from Brazilian Atlantic forest, grown indoors for its silver-banded vase-shaped rosette and dramatic once-in-a-lifetime spike of pink bracts and blue flowers.
Tree aeonium
Aeonium arboreum is an evergreen subshrub from the Canary Islands, grown for fleshy rosettes of waxy leaves perched at the tips of branched tree-like stems.
Lipstick plant
Aeschynanthus radicans is a trailing tropical epiphyte from Southeast Asian rainforests, grown for the bright red tubular flowers that emerge from dark-purple calyces — exactly like lipstick from a tube.
Chinese evergreen
Aglaonema commutatum is a slow-growing tropical understory aroid from the Philippines and Sulawesi, prized as one of the most low-light-tolerant houseplants available.
Alocasia Polly
Alocasia 'Polly' is a compact tropical aroid hybrid grown for its dramatic dark-green sagittate leaves with bold cream-white veins.
Zebra alocasia
Alocasia zebrina is a Philippine endemic aroid grown for its iconic zebra-striped petioles supporting plain glossy-green arrowhead leaves.
Aloe vera
Aloe vera is a stemless succulent from the Arabian Peninsula, grown indoors and outdoors for its thick, gel-filled leaves long used in topical skin preparations.
Anthurium
Anthurium andraeanum is an epiphytic aroid from the humid Pacific rainforests of Colombia and Ecuador, grown indoors for its long-lasting lacquered heart-shaped spathe (often mistaken for a petal) and yellow spadix.
Velvet cardboard anthurium
Anthurium clarinervium is a Mexican cloud-forest endemic grown for its dark green velvet heart-shaped leaves with dramatic bright white veins.
Norfolk Island pine
Araucaria heterophylla is a coniferous tree endemic to Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, grown indoors as a 'living Christmas tree' for its perfectly tiered horizontal branches and soft bright-green needles.
Asparagus fern
Asparagus setaceus is a soft fern-like climber that is not a fern at all — it's a flowering plant in the asparagus family, related to onions and lilies.
Cast iron plant
Aspidistra elatior is a slow-growing evergreen perennial from shaded Japanese island forest floors, famous for surviving conditions that kill almost every other houseplant — deep shade, dry air, draughts, and irregular watering.
Bird's nest fern
Asplenium nidus is a pantropical epiphytic fern with a single rosette of glossy, apple-green spoon-shaped fronds — naturally trapping leaf litter and rainwater in its central cup.
Ponytail palm
Beaucarnea recurvata is a very slow-growing tree from eastern Mexican semi-arid forests, grown indoors for its swollen water-storing caudex ('elephant's foot') and fountain of narrow strap leaves.
Polka dot begonia
Begonia maculata is a cane-type begonia from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, grown indoors for its asymmetric angel-wing leaves with bold silver polka-dots on top and deep maroon undersides.
Iron cross begonia
Begonia masoniana is a rhizomatous begonia from southern Chinese and Vietnamese limestone karst forest, grown for its uniquely puckered apple-green leaves marked with a deep chocolate-brown five-armed pattern resembling the German Iron Cross or the Maltese Cross.
Rex begonia
Begonia rex is a Himalayan rhizomatous begonia grown for spectacular asymmetric leaves patterned in silver, pink, red, purple, and green — almost no two cultivars look alike.
Caladium
Caladium bicolor is a tropical American tuber grown for spectacular paper-thin heart-shaped leaves in white, pink, red, and green patterns.
String of hearts
Ceropegia woodii is a trailing succulent-like vine from southern African rocky slopes, grown indoors for its long cascading strings of small heart-shaped leaves marbled with silver.
Parlor palm
Chamaedorea elegans is a small, slow-growing understory palm from the cloud forests of southern Mexico and Guatemala, and the pet-safe palm of choice for indoor cultivation.
Spider plant
Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum) is a fast-growing, arching-leaved evergreen from southern Africa, famous for the cascades of plantlets it sends out on long stolons.
Grape ivy
Cissus alata (commonly still labelled Cissus rhombifolia) is an evergreen climbing vine from northern South America, in the grape family — every leaf has the trifoliate compound shape and curling tendrils that hint at the relationship to actual grapes.
Croton
Codiaeum variegatum is a tropical Euphorbiaceae shrub from the Western Pacific, grown indoors for its dramatic multi-coloured foliage that ranges through green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple — sometimes all on the same leaf.
Arabica coffee
Coffea arabica is an evergreen Rubiaceae shrub from Ethiopian highland forests, source of about 60 % of the world's commercial coffee, and increasingly grown indoors as a houseplant for its glossy dark-green foliage and (rarely indoors) fragrant white jasmine-scented flowers and red coffee cherries.
Hawaiian ti plant
Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen shrub from tropical Southeast Asia and Polynesia, grown indoors for its strap-like leaves in vivid combinations of pink, magenta, cream, and green depending on cultivar.
Jade plant
Crassula ovata is a long-lived evergreen succulent from South Africa, grown indoors as the classic 'money tree'.
Fishbone prayer plant
Ctenanthe burle-marxii is a clumping evergreen perennial from Brazilian Atlantic rainforest understorey, in the prayer-plant family Marantaceae alongside Calathea/Goeppertia and Maranta.
String of bananas
Curio radicans is a South African trailing succulent grown for its long strands of curved banana-shaped leaves.
String of pearls
Curio rowleyanus (formerly Senecio rowleyanus) is a trailing xerophytic succulent from South Africa's Cape scrubland, grown for its strings of spherical pea-sized leaves that cascade from shallow pots and hanging baskets.
Sago palm
Cycas revoluta is a slow-growing cycad (NOT a true palm) from southern Japan and the Ryukyu Islands, grown indoors for its stiff feather-shaped leaves and thick pineapple-like trunk.
Florist's cyclamen
Cyclamen persicum is an Eastern Mediterranean tuberous perennial grown indoors as a winter-flowering pot plant for its swept-back petals on long stems above heart-shaped silver-marbled leaves.
Dumb cane
Dieffenbachia seguine is a large-leaved tropical aroid from Central and South American forest, grown indoors for its bold variegated foliage on stout upright canes.
Venus flytrap
Dionaea muscipula is a small carnivorous plant endemic to the bog savannas of coastal North and South Carolina, famous for its hinged snap-trap leaves that close on insect prey.
Corn plant
Dracaena fragrans is a tropical African evergreen sold indoors as bundled or single canes topped with corn-leaf-like rosettes.
Dragon tree
Dracaena marginata is a slow-growing tree from Madagascar and Mauritius, grown indoors for its slender grey canes topped with tufts of narrow, arching, red-margined leaves.
Song of India
Dracaena reflexa 'Song of India' is a slow-growing shrubby dracaena native to Madagascar and Mauritius, almost always sold as the yellow-margined cultivar.
Lucky bamboo
Dracaena sanderiana is a slow-growing African understorey shrub sold as 'lucky bamboo' — it is not a bamboo at all, but a true Dracaena that happens to grow in segmented bamboo-like canes.
Snake plant
Snake plant (Dracaena trifasciata, formerly Sansevieria) is a stiff, upright evergreen from tropical West Africa — the most drought-tolerant, light-tolerant houseplant sold at scale.
Areca palm
Dypsis lutescens is a clumping multi-stemmed palm endemic to eastern Madagascar, grown indoors for its arching feather fronds and yellow-gold cane bases.
Mexican snowball
Echeveria elegans is a small evergreen succulent that grows as a tight pale blue-green rosette of fleshy chalky-coated leaves, native to Mexican limestone cliffs.
Pothos
Pothos (Epipremnum aureum, often labelled devil's ivy or golden pothos) is the hardiest trailing houseplant vine sold — grown for its heart-shaped, often variegated leaves.
Crown of thorns
Euphorbia milii is a thorny succulent shrub from Madagascar that flowers almost year-round indoors with persistent showy bracts in red, pink, yellow, or white.
Weeping fig
Ficus benjamina is a graceful evergreen tree from tropical Asia, grown indoors as one of the most popular statement houseplants worldwide.
Rubber plant
Ficus elastica is a large evergreen tree from the foothills of the eastern Himalayas, grown indoors for its thick, glossy, near-oval leaves.
Fiddle leaf fig
Ficus lyrata is a large evergreen rainforest tree from tropical West Africa, grown indoors for its huge violin-shaped glossy leaves.
Creeping fig
Ficus pumila is an East Asian climbing fig grown indoors for its small heart-shaped juvenile leaves on dense trailing or wall-climbing stems.
Nerve plant
Fittonia albivenis is a low-growing rainforest understorey plant from the Peruvian Andes, grown indoors for its dramatically veined silver, pink, or red foliage.
Rattlesnake plant
Goeppertia insignis (still widely sold as Calathea lancifolia) is a Brazilian Atlantic-forest understory plant grown indoors for its long wavy lance-shaped leaves with dark-green oval blotches and deep purple undersides.
Peacock plant
Goeppertia makoyana (formerly Calathea makoyana) is a clump-forming evergreen perennial from Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, grown for translucent oval leaves marked with a peacock-tail pattern in light and dark green above and pinkish-purple beneath.
Calathea orbifolia
Goeppertia orbifolia (long sold as Calathea orbifolia) is a large prayer-plant from Bolivian cloud forest, grown indoors for its nearly circular leaves striped in silver and pale green.
Zebra haworthia
Haworthiopsis attenuata is a small rosette-forming succulent from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, popular indoors for its dark green leaves banded with raised white tubercles that give the diagnostic 'zebra' pattern.
English ivy
Hedera helix is a hardy evergreen vine native across Europe, grown indoors as a trailing or climbing houseplant.
Kentia palm
Howea forsteriana is a slow-growing single-stemmed palm endemic to Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, prized as a houseplant since the 1870s for its rare ability to tolerate the cool, dim, dry conditions inside Victorian and Edwardian rooms.
Wax plant
Hoya carnosa is an evergreen epiphytic vine from East Asian and Australian rainforests, grown indoors for its thick waxy paired leaves and umbels of pink porcelain-like flowers that drip nectar at night.
Sweetheart hoya
Hoya kerrii is a slow-growing succulent vine native to Southeast Asia, beloved for its thick heart-shaped leaves.
Pendant wax plant
Hoya linearis is an epiphytic hoya from cool montane Himalayan cloud forest, instantly recognisable by its long pendant strands of soft hair-fringed needle-shaped leaves rather than the thick waxy leaves typical of most hoyas.
Splash hoya
Hoya pubicalyx is a vigorous Philippine wax-plant vine grown for silver-splashed leaves and dramatic burgundy-to-near-black star-shaped flowers in tight ball-shaped umbels.
Polka dot plant
Hypoestes phyllostachya is a small Madagascan understorey perennial grown indoors for its pink, white, or red dotted leaves.
Kalanchoe
Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is a small succulent shrub from Madagascar, sold by the millions each year as a flowering pot plant in red, pink, orange, yellow, and white.
Living stone
Lithops aucampiae is a tiny South African mimicry succulent that looks like a split pebble — two fused fleshy leaves with a transverse fissure across the top, sunk into the soil so almost nothing protrudes.
Prayer plant
Maranta leuconeura is a low-growing herbaceous perennial from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest understory, grown indoors for its boldly marked leaves that fold upright at night — the behaviour (nyctinasty) that gives the plant its common name.
Sensitive plant
Mimosa pudica is a small tropical legume famous for the leaflets folding shut within seconds of being touched (thigmonasty).
Swiss cheese vine
Monstera adansonii is a tropical vining aroid native to Central and South American forest, grown indoors for its fenestrated oval leaves.
Swiss cheese plant
Monstera deliciosa is a large hemiepiphytic vine from Central American rainforests, grown indoors for its glossy, naturally fenestrated leaves.
Goldfish plant
Nematanthus gregarius is a trailing epiphytic sub-shrub from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, grown for its glossy dark green foliage and bright orange pouched flowers that look like leaping goldfish.
Tropical pitcher plant
Nepenthes alata is a Philippine carnivorous vine grown indoors for its pitchers — modified leaf tips that form fluid-filled traps to digest small insects.
Boston fern
Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata 'Bostoniensis') is the iconic Victorian parlour fern — a graceful arching-frond epiphyte from Florida and tropical America.
Bunny ear cactus
Opuntia microdasys is a small Mexican cactus famous for its flat oval 'bunny ear' pads dotted with tufts of fine yellow or white bristles.
Purple shamrock
Oxalis triangularis is a South American bulb grown for the deep purple triangular trifoliate leaves that fold up at sunset and reopen at dawn — a daily movement called nyctinasty.
Money tree
Pachira aquatica is a tropical wetland tree from Central and South America, sold worldwide as a houseplant — usually in the form of 3–5 young trunks braided together while still flexible.
Madagascar palm
Pachypodium lamerei is a thorny caudiciform succulent from southern Madagascar, marketed as the 'Madagascar palm' because of its fat trunk and crown of strap-like leaves — but it is in the Apocynaceae (the same family as oleander), not a true palm at all.
Button fern
Pellaea rotundifolia is a small evergreen fern endemic to New Zealand, with round, button-like leathery pinnae arranged along arching wiry near-black stems.
Watermelon peperomia
Peperomia argyreia is a small herbaceous Piperaceae from South American rainforest understories, grown indoors for nearly-round leaves with silver-and-dark-green stripes that look uncannily like a watermelon rind.
Emerald ripple peperomia
Peperomia caperata is a small Brazilian rainforest plant grown for its rippled, deeply-corrugated heart-shaped leaves and curious white rat-tail flower spikes.
Baby rubber plant
Peperomia obtusifolia is a semi-succulent epiphyte from the Caribbean and tropical Americas, grown indoors for its glossy thick spoon-shaped leaves on short upright stems.
Moth orchid
Phalaenopsis are epiphytic orchids from Southeast Asian rainforests, grown indoors for their long-lasting flower spikes (6–12 weeks per bloom cycle) on a compact rosette of thick strap leaves.
Philodendron Birkin
Philodendron 'Birkin' is a tissue-cultured, self-heading philodendron cultivar grown for its dark-green leaves marked by crisp creamy-white pinstripe variegation.
Pink Princess philodendron
Philodendron 'Pink Princess' is a chimeric variegated cultivar of P.
Glorious philodendron
Philodendron gloriosum is a terrestrial rhizomatous philodendron from Colombian forest understorey, grown for its large heart-shaped velvety dark green leaves with bright silver-white veins.
Heartleaf philodendron
Philodendron hederaceum is a fast-growing tropical vine from the Americas and Caribbean, and one of the most forgiving trailing or climbing houseplants in commerce.
Aluminum plant
Pilea cadierei is a small understorey perennial from Vietnam and southern China grown indoors for its dark green leaves with silver 'aluminum-painted' patches between the veins.
Chinese money plant
Pilea peperomioides is an upright herbaceous perennial from the mountains of Yunnan, grown indoors for its round, peltate (umbrella-like) leaves on long slender petioles.
Staghorn fern
Platycerium bifurcatum is an epiphytic Australian fern grown for its dramatic forked antler-like fronds, traditionally mounted on a wooden board rather than potted.
Swedish ivy
Plectranthus verticillatus is a trailing evergreen perennial from southern African forest edges, beloved across Nordic countries as a windowsill classic since the 1950s.
Cretan brake fern
Pteris cretica is an evergreen terrestrial fern with arching pale-green or cream-and-green variegated fronds, much hardier indoors than Boston, maidenhair, or birds-nest ferns.
Mistletoe cactus
Rhipsalis baccifera is an epiphytic rainforest cactus grown indoors for its long trailing strands of pencil-thick green stems.
Dwarf umbrella tree
Schefflera arboricola is a compact Araliaceae shrub from Taiwan, grown indoors as an upright single- or multi-stemmed houseplant with palmately compound leaves arranged like the spokes of an umbrella.
Christmas cactus
Schlumbergera truncata is an epiphytic forest cactus from cool Brazilian mountains, grown indoors for its showy zygomorphic flowers in shades of pink, red, white, and orange that open during the dark months.
Satin pothos
Scindapsus pictus is a Southeast Asian vining aroid grown for its matte heart-shaped leaves dappled with silver.
Burro's tail
Sedum morganianum is a trailing Mexican succulent grown for the heavy ropes of plump blue-green leaves that hang up to a metre below the pot.
Hens and chicks
Sempervivum tectorum is an alpine European succulent that forms tight ground-hugging rosettes ringed by daughter offsets ('chicks').
Baby's tears
Soleirolia soleirolii is a creeping evergreen perennial endemic to Mediterranean island scrub, grown indoors as a moss-like ground cover in terrariums, mossariums, and shaded plant pots.
Peace lily
The peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii) is a compact evergreen aroid from tropical Colombia and Venezuela, grown indoors for its glossy green leaves and long-lasting white spathes.
Giant white bird of paradise
Strelitzia nicolai is the giant white bird of paradise — a large evergreen statement plant from the coastal bush of eastern South Africa, grown indoors for its dramatic banana-like paddle leaves.
Crane flower
Strelitzia reginae is a clumping evergreen perennial from coastal South Africa, grown for its dramatic orange-and-blue 'crane' flowers that emerge from a spathe like a bird's beak.
African violet
Streptocarpus ionanthus (formerly Saintpaulia ionantha) is a compact rosette-forming perennial from the cloud forests of the East African Eastern Arc Mountains, grown indoors for near-continuous flowering of five-petalled violet flowers above soft hairy leaves.
Persian shield
Strobilanthes dyeriana is a short-lived tropical sub-shrub from Myanmar grown for its iridescent purple-and-silver leaves — colour produced not by pigment but by light interference inside the leaf surface.
Tricolor stromanthe
Stromanthe 'Triostar' is a Brazilian Atlantic-rainforest perennial in the prayer-plant family (Marantaceae), grown for its dramatic cream/pink/green variegation and bright magenta leaf undersides.
Arrowhead plant
Syngonium podophyllum is a climbing aroid from Central and South American rainforests, grown indoors for its arrow-shaped juvenile leaves and wide range of pink, cream, and silver cultivars.
Air plant
Tillandsia xerographica is a large epiphytic bromeliad from seasonally dry forests of southern Mexico and Central America, grown indoors as a soilless 'air plant' that absorbs water and nutrients through silvery scales (trichomes) on its curling leaves.
Moses in the cradle
Tradescantia spathacea is a clump-forming evergreen perennial from Central American limestone scrub, grown for its rosette of upright sword-shaped leaves green above and bright purple beneath.
Wandering dude
Tradescantia zebrina is a fast-growing trailing groundcover from Mesoamerican cloud forests, grown indoors for its silver-and-purple striped leaves and effortless propagation.
Yucca cane
Yucca gigantea is a Central American tree-yucca grown indoors as a sculptural cane plant — a thick woody trunk topped with rosettes of stiff sword-shaped leaves.
ZZ plant
ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) is the most drought-tolerant houseplant in commercial production — a monotypic eastern African aroid with succulent rhizomes that store water for months.