We take a brief look at the history of indoor plants, journey to the jungle to meet two of our tropical house plants in their native habitats, and recount the curious story of how the popular Pilea found it’s way from the mountains of China into homes all across the world.
What are house plants and where did they come from?
Our leafy friends were never meant to live indoors but humans have been taking plants from the wild and bringing them into their homes for thousands of years. All of our house plants can be found growing wild somewhere in the world. Some of them, like the Pilea plant we’ll look at later, have had a very interesting journey. We’ll find out how they got from their native habitat in China, to the homes of plant lovers all around the world. Knowing about the native origins of plants also helps us to understand the conditions they need in order to thrive.
First, let’s take a brief look at the history of house plants across the ages.
A Potted History of House Plants
People have been cultivating food crops since the early days of human history. But when did we first start putting plants in pots and bringing them indoors?
Historically, house plants were a symbol of wealth and our earliest records of potted plants appear in paintings from Egypt, Rome, and Greece dating back to 500 BC. And one story goes back even further than that.
Hanging Gardens Of Babylon
One of the most fascinating stories of potted plants in ancient history, is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. There’s still a question as to whether or not these gardens actually existed but nevertheless it’s a great story! The story goes that around 600BC, in the city of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar II commissioned spectacular gardens for his wife, Queen Amytis. The Queen was homesick for the lush greenery and rolling hills of her homeland, Persia. As a rather grandiose romantic gesture, the King led the construction of a hanging garden. This was full of dates, palms, cedars and fragrant flowers all growing upside down in pots which were suspended from the ceiling! Pretty ‘out there’ even by today’s standards.
Egyptians Greeks and Romans
After Babylon, around 500 and 400 BC, house plants became popular with wealthy Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. While all three cultures kept plants in terracotta pots, the Romans preferred marble and had a passion for showy flowers, collecting the largest and brightest flowers they could find. Among the favourite Roman house plants were large rose and violet varieties.
Tropical Plants and the New World
After the fall of the Roman Empire, ornamental house plants largely disappeared from Europe. Monks kept some functional plants like herbs and vegetables but house plants only became trendy again during the European Renaissance when the wealthy again wanted to show off their plants as a status symbol.
When Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492 amidst it’s array of lush tropical flora, his “discovery” was a key moment for the evolution of house plants. Throughout the 16th and 17th century, explorers transported plants across the Atlantic from the New World where they were presented to monarchs and other wealthy individuals as gifts for sponsoring the voyages. These early plant parents would have quickly realised that the climate in Europe wasn’t quite the same as that of the Americas! Luckily, during the Renaissance, many Royals and wealthy families had built “orangeries”, greenhouses intended to house citrus fruits but which were subsequently used to showcase their exotic plant collections.
House plants started to rise in popularity after that but it wasn’t until the the Victorian Era that they really started to catch on with the middle class.
House Plants in the Victorian Era
With the industrial revolution, cheaper glass and advancements in architecture, growing plants in houses became easier. People were now able to heat their homes, and higher ceilings and larger windows provided the proper climate for hardy house plants. Plants like the Peace Lily Spathiphyllum, Cast-Iron Plant Aspidistra and Spider Plant Chlorophytum were common and the popular Palour Palm Chamaedorea elegans became a big hit.
Desire for house plants grew and books on gardening and house plants became available. The Victorians also compiled extensive lists of flowers and gave a meaning to each one, creating floriography – “the language of flowers”. In an era when people were expected to be more subtle and speaking about romantic feelings and relationships was taboo, this Victorian flower language allowed people to express their feelings and send secret messages from person to person. Numerous dictionaries were written and the language of flowers became wildly popular. Not only the type of flower but also it’s colour was significant. For example, red roses signified passionate love, whereas white roses signified sanctity and purity. It all probably got pretty confusing at times, with multiple meanings being assigned to each flower depending on what dictionary you were using and even the way the flowers were presented was important. For example if you were presented with the bouquet upside-down, it’s meaning was the opposite from it’s traditional one. Still, it sounds pretty fun, maybe it’s time for a revival?
House Plants Today
House plants didn’t become so mainstream until after WWII. The temperature of homes could be now be controlled and transporting plants around was easier than ever. The economy had improved, so more people had money to spend on luxuries like house plants.
The rise of the modern office and work day also had a role to play. Hardy plants, resistant to low light and drought, were used to liven up otherwise dreary workplaces. And from the workplace, these plants naturally migrated to homes.
Nowadays, house plants are no longer just for the wealthy. Modern propagation and plant breeding techniques mean a huge diversity of plants are now available for plant lovers to buy.
Modern homes are now warmer and brighter than ever before and this means we can share our homes with plants from climates very different to our own. It’s helpful to know the wild ancestry of our domesticated plants as it gives us clues about how best to care for them.
The Jungle “Roots” of Popular House Plants
Ever since Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, exotic plants have been making their way across the Atlantic, bringing a sense of the tropics to those of us living in cooler climates.
Many of today’s popular house plants come from the world’s tropical forests.
Philodendrons have been a perennial favourite since Victorian times, probably because they are extremely tolerant and easy to care for. Their “roots,” however, lie in the tropical jungles of the Americas and West Indies, where their leaves can grow incredibly large. There are hundreds of different Philodendrons in the wild and many of them are climbers, often found clambering over other plants or climbing up the trunks of trees. The Heart-Leaf philodendron Philodendron cordatum, is one of these climbers and one of today’s most popular house plants.
Plants like the Philodendron, that grow under the forest canopy can adapt to the lower light levels indoors because they are used to the dappled shade of the forest floor. As house plants, Philodendrons prefer bright but indirect light and will often tolerate very low light conditions.
Rainforests are also humid environments, so misting Philodendrons leaves regularly can help them to grow luscious green foliage.
Another jungle plant and relative of the Philodendron is the Monstera, commonly known as the Swiss Cheese Plant because of it’s large perforated leaves. A popular house plant in the 70’s, the sculptural Monstera deliciosa is now making a come-back and is currently one of the most popular plants on social media.
Monstera deliciosa is actually a creeping vine from the tropical forests of Southern Mexico, Honduras, Gutemala and Panama. One of the larger house plants, the Monstera is a veritable giant in the wild, capable of growing up to 20 metres tall! It uses it’s fleshy aerial roots to attach itself to tree trunks, rocks and cliff faces and then clambers skywards towards the canopy light, growing it’s gigantic leaves. The more light the plant gets, the larger the leaves, up to 90cm in diameter! And the larger the leaves get, the more cuts and perforations they have.
As a house plant, the Monstera remains much smaller and is relatively easy to care for. It can still reach up to 3 metres given the right conditions and room to grow. It’s dark green, glossy leaves, start off heart-shaped and develop the characteristic splits and holes as they grow older. Monstera means “strange” in latin and it is their peculiar leaves that gave the plant their name.
There are several theories as to why the Monstera’s leaves develop holes. Some have suggested that Monsteras create holes in their leaves to resist the strong winds of hurricanes. Others suggest that they have the holes to allow water to come in contact with their roots more easily. The current leading theory however, comes from Christoper Muir at Indiana university1 who suggests that it is to do with light. In a rainforest, under-storey plants survive by capturing the small beams of sunlight that make it through the forest canopy. Muir’s theory is that the holes function to increase the surface area of the Monstera’s leaves in order to maximise the amount of light they can reach.
Monstera plants also have muscles! Well sort of. They are one of the plant species that have a “geniculum”, a special adaptation to the plants petiole (leaf stalk) which allows the the leaf to rotate and orient itself towards the the light, a bit like our knee or elbow joints allow us to rotate our arms and legs.
Perhaps one of the main differences between wild and domesticated Monsteras is that in the wild, Monstera plants grow edible fruit. Considered a delicacy for it’s sweet, exotic flavour, it is this fruit that gave Monstera deliciosa the second part of it’s name! Rich and sweet, it tastes like the combination of strawberries, pineapple, mango and passion-fruit, but it’s only edible when it’s fully ripe.
Being from the rainforest, Monstera deliciosa likes warm, humid places in the home and it needs a support to climb up. In the wild, the Monstera vine winds itself around trees but as a house plant, it generally comes wrapped around a moss pole. It prefers a bright but not too sunny position and it needs regular misting. Light from an east-facing window is best. Direct light from a south-facing window can be too intense and scorch it’s leaves. Dusting the leaves regularly will help the plant breathe more easily!
Monstera deliciosa is not as commonly seen in the wild as in cultivation.2 Perhaps this is because wild Monsteras grow very slowly from seeds whereas Monstera houseplants can quite easily be propagated by taking cuttings or by air-layering 3.
The Power of the Pilea
Not all house plants come from the tropics. The lovely Pilea for example, currently a favourite across the globe, comes from the mountains of South West China.
Also known as the Chinese Money Plant, The Missionary Plant and the Friendship Plant, the story of how Pilea peperomioides came to be one of the most popular house plants, is surely one of the most fascinating. It involves some unlikely characters including a famous London Hairdresser, a Norwegian au pair, a journalist from the Telegraph and a Chinese Missionary!
In the wild, Pilea peperomioides only grows in China, in the South West Sichuan Province and in the West of Yunnan province. It grows on shady, damp rocks in forests at altitudes from 1500 to 3000m. It’s very rare in its native habitat but has become one of the most popular house plants across several continents, recently sparking a new indoor plant obsession. How did this happen?!
From the mid 1970’s, specimens of the Chinese Money Plant started appearing regularly at the enquiry desks of the botanic gardens at Kew, Edinburgh and Wisley.5 Most of the specimens were coming from one street in the London Borough of Harrow. Kew thought that they were a Peperomia but as none of the specimens they received had flowers, they could only make an educated guess. It turned out, that the people who lived in Harrow were getting their specimens from a Hairdresser – Mr Teazy-Weazy (real name Raymond Besonne) who gave away the cuttings to his clients. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember where he had got his plant from, so the investigation continued.
In 1978 Kew finally received a specimen with flowers. Although the leaves resembles Peperomia, the tiny male flowers indicated that it belonged to the stinging nettle family, Urticaceae. They were then able to match it to the specimen of Pilea peperomioides collected by plant hunter George Forrest who had collected the plant along with many other Chinese plants in 1906 and again in 1910 from Western Yunnan. Over the next few years people continued to send in specimens of the Chinese Money Plant from all over Britain and it quickly became apparent that lots of people were growing the plant and passing the cuttings onto their friends or selling them at fêtes and jumble sales. The species was at this time barely known to scientists who hadn’t even seen any living female flowers.
So how did the plant get from the mountains of Western Yunnan to Britain? In order to solve this puzzle, Kew botanist Dr Philip Cribb decided to enlist the help of the Telegraph journalists who published an illustrated article asking if anyone had any information about the introduction of the plant to Britain. One response to the article gave them an essential lead.
A family in Cornwall, the Sidebottoms, had a Norwegian au pair Modil Wigg, who gifted the Sidebottoms’ youngest daughter with a small specimen of the Pilea plant when she visited the Wigg family in Norway. This information provided the vital link with Scandinavia.
Botanists from Scandinavia visiting Kew Gardens, were shown specimens of Pilea peperomioides but none of them had ever seen it before. The Scandinavian botanists started to make enquiries in their own countries but as in Britain, the plant was unknown in botanic gardens and in the horticultural trade. Dr Lars Kers of the Bergius Botanic Garden, arranged for the plant to be presented on a popular Swedish television programme. This turned out to be a hugely successful step in the investigation. Around 10,000 letters were sent in to the programme, proving that P. peperomioides was an extremely popular house plant in Sweden!
Amongst the avalanche of letters, came the final link to the puzzling problem of the Pilea. It turned out that a Norwegian Missionary, Agnar Espergen, brought the plant to Norway from China in 1946. The plant even went via Calcutta where Agnar Espergen and his family stayed for a few months after they first left China. This little Pilea was a very well travelled plant!
After his return, Mr Espergen travelled widely in Norway, giving cuttings of his Pilea plant to his friends. In this way, the plant was spread all around the country where it is now a popular window sill plant known as “the Missionary Plant”. From Norway, the plant spread to Sweden, England and then onto other countries across the globe.
Pilea peperomioides can now been found all over the world and in recent years was the most sought after house plant in the US, conquering endless hearts on Instagram and seducing a new generation of plant lovers.
It’s a pretty amazing story of how this Chinese species, without being known to western science, spread around thousands of homes in Europe as a result of the off-shoots being passed from person to person.
Our fascination with plants has roots that go back to ancient history and it’s an obsession that continues to grow and spread to new generations. According to the 2016 National Gardening survey, six million new Americans took up gardening in 2015, and five million of them were millennials.
Humans are responsible for spreading plants all over the globe. It’s interesting to think that for plants like the Pilea,which are becoming scarce in the wild, bringing them into homes can ensure their continued survival.
Learning about the wild origins of our house plants also helps us to provide them with the right care. Our tropical plant friends need warm, humid environments and that’s why they are as at home with us, as they are in their native rainforest environments.
Further reading:
1. D Muir, Christopher. (2013). How Did the Swiss Cheese Plant Get Its Holes?. The American naturalist. 181. 273-81. 10.1086/668819.
2. https://www.exoticrainforest.com/Monstera%20deliciosa%20large%20pc.html
3. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/swiss-cheese-plant/monstera-deliciosa-propagation.htm
4. Interview of Dr Phillip Cribb by Jane Perrone on Episode 17: Seeking Pilea peperomioides – why everyone wants the Chinese money plant (01:40) of On the Ledge podcast. 15 September 2017.
5. http://www.wildchicken.com/nature/garden/ga008_a_chinese_puzzle.htm
6. https://gardenresearch.com/
