Description
Houseplants with decorative, patterned and multicoloured leaves can easily rival any flowering plant. They often come from exotic countries.
Plants with ornamental leaves mostly come from tropical countries, where they grow larger and, like other plants, flower and bear fruit. Under this shared group name, which emphasises leaf colour and shape, you will find representatives of many species. They may be small trees as well as small climbing or trailing plants, evergreens and plants that shed their leaves.
With their interesting leaf shapes, delicate patterns and unusual colouring, all these green plants can compete with many flowering plants grown indoors. They also have one more advantage over flowering plants: flowers bloom only at a certain time and for no more than a few weeks, whereas patterned, variegated plants look decorative and attractive all year round.
An exception is, for example, caladium, which sheds its leaves in late autumn and leaves an unattractive tuber for the whole winter.
It is worth limiting the number of plants with patterned leaves to two or three in one place. They make the greatest impact when set against species with plain green leaves.
One thing should not be forgotten, though. Among plants with patterned leaves there are some that lose their beauty over time. These include, for example, bloodleaf and iresine. Both, however, can be propagated from cuttings or offshoots.
What we like so much about patterned, multicoloured plants is in fact often the result of a need or an error of nature. This is the case with variegated leaves – those with white or yellow stripes or patches. These colours are caused by a lack of chlorophyll. In dark rooms such leaves will turn green: the plants simply have to produce more chlorophyll, and for that they need whole leaf surfaces to capture as much light as possible.
In some plants, such as the flowering maple (Abutilon) grown indoors, the coloured leaves are the result of a viral disease. In such plants even the offspring raised from cuttings will still have coloured leaves. But if they are propagated from seed, the new plants will be just one colour.