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Plant Encyclopedia

Care cards, common problems, and fun facts for the plants collectors actually buy. Updated as the library grows.

Alocasia Polly
Alocasia x amazonica 'Polly'

A compact alocasia hybrid with arrow-shaped, almost black leaves and bright silver-white veining. Dramatic, sculptural, and famously dramatic about drafts.

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Anthurium Clarinervium
Anthurium clarinervium

Heart-shaped, deep emerald leaves stamped with bright white veins — a velvety, almost embossed look that no other aroid quite matches. Native to Chiapas, Mexico.

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Golden Pothos
Epipremnum aureum

The most forgiving trailing houseplant in the world. Native to the Solomon Islands, naturalized across the tropics, and famously hard to kill — a Pothos cutting in a glass of water will outlive most relationships.

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Monstera Adansonii
Monstera adansonii

Often called the 'cheese plant for small spaces.' A vining aroid with smaller, fully-enclosed fenestrated leaves — the holes form within the leaf rather than splitting from the edge like a deliciosa.

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Monstera Albo
Monstera deliciosa 'Albo Variegata'

The crown jewel of variegated aroids. A chimeric mutation of Monstera deliciosa that produces dramatic white sectors — every leaf is one-of-a-kind and unstable, which is exactly why collectors chase it.

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Monstera deliciosa
Monstera deliciosa

The icon of modern houseplant collecting. A vigorous tropical aroid native to southern Mexico and Central America, prized for the dramatic fenestrations (splits and holes) that develop as it matures.

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Philodendron Birkin
Philodendron 'Birkin'

A stable mutation of Philodendron 'Rojo Congo' that arose in cultivation in the late 2010s. Striking pinstripe variegation on each leaf and a tidy upright habit — one of the easiest 'collector-looking' plants to keep alive.

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Philodendron Gloriosum
Philodendron gloriosum

A creeping, terrestrial philodendron with massive velvety heart-shaped leaves and pink-edged petioles. Unlike its climbing cousins, gloriosum crawls across the soil surface — making it as much a statement piece as a plant.

mediumintermediate
Philodendron Pink Princess
Philodendron erubescens 'Pink Princess'

The aroid that made variegated philodendrons a household obsession. Deep burgundy leaves splashed with bubblegum-pink sectors that can vary from a freckle to a perfect half-moon.

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Snake plant
Dracaena trifasciata

Architectural, drought-proof, and almost impossible to kill except by overwatering. West African native, now the apartment plant by default.

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Spider plant
Chlorophytum comosum

A classic '70s houseplant making a quiet comeback. Throws plantlets ('spiderettes') on long stems — propagate by snipping and rooting in water.

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ZZ plant
Zamioculcas zamiifolia

The plant that survives a forgotten apartment over a long vacation. Underground rhizomes store water for weeks, and the glossy leaves shrug off dust and low light.

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