A good houseplant is the prayer plant because it’s simple to cultivate, has interesting foliage, and can withstand indoor conditions. A low, spreading plant known as a “prayer plant” that may grow horizontally down a tabletop or other surface and is frequently planted in hanging baskets. Because it grows slowly, you don’t have to worry about the prayer plant spreading beyond its designated area.
The leaves of this tough indoor plant frequently fold together at night, resembling a pair of praying hands, giving rise to its common name. The foliage of most varieties of prayer plants is variegated, which heightens the plant’s visual appeal. Although prayer plant does produce blooms, they are not abundant or particularly attractive. For its leaves, this is a nice houseplant to grow.
Prayer Plant Growing Instructions
Grow the prayer plant in dim, moderate, or strong lighting. In high light, it’s ideal to use a sheer drape or other screen to shield the leaves from direct sunlight.
Just before the soil surface dries, water the prayer plant. This resilient houseplant like to remain largely damp (but not sopping wet all the time). If it dries out too much or too frequently, its leaves may begin to turn brown.
Only once or twice a year, ideally in the spring or summer, is sufficient to maintain the health of a prayer plant. If you’d like, you can fertilize it more frequently. Use any fertilizer designed for indoor plants and adhere to the instructions on the container.
Although prayer plant normally thrives in most houses, it prefers higher-than-average humidity levels. Increasing the humidity around your prayer plant will make it happier if the air in your home is very dry in the winter.
Include these types with your prayer plant:
The combination of banana and the prayer plant results in a stunningly striking, tropical appearance.
Forest Drum Use the prayer plant’s stunning contrast to the intriguing corrugated foliage of the jungle drum.
Purple Excellence The prayer plant’s variegated patterns look magnificent next to the deep purple of Purple Perfection.
Calathea is a prayer plant because…
The Marantaceae family of plants includes several different kinds of plants, including Marantas, Calathea, Stromanthe, and Ctenanthe.
Since they appear to be praying, they are known as prayer plants. They spread their leaves out to capture the light during the day then fold them back up at night, giving the impression that they are praying.
Don’t get alarmed if you don’t observe your plant praying; the extent to which some plants pray varies. Your plant may be moving more than you realize if you take a time lapse video.
Are prayer plants and catheas the same thing?
All Calatheas, also referred to as “prayer plants,” belong to the Maranta genus, which they are closely related to. If you’re unfamiliar with prayer plants and the humidity-loving Calatheas, we’ll go over their history and maintenance requirements.
What justifies the name “prayer plant”?
Maranta variants, often known as prayer plants, got their popular name because at night, their leaves curl up like praying hands. According to Lindstedt, “this Maranta movement represents the contemplative action of a daily prayer of thankfulness.” A Maranta can serve as a token of thanks when you wish to give someone a present. Marantas can grow in low, medium, or bright indirect light depending on the type, and they often require watering just as the soil begins to feel dry to the touch. Some marantas can reach heights of up to 12 inches and have green leaves with pink, scarlet, and silver streaks.
Oxalis: Good Luck
Oxalis variations are also known as shamrock plants or false shamrocks and are thought to be lucky. Around St. Patrick’s Day, Oxalis plants are occasionally offered for sale as indoor plants. They have tiny white or pink blooms on heart- or triangle-shaped leaves that can be a variety of hues of green or dark purple. Oxalis typically grows to a height of less than 12 inches, thrives in bright indirect sun, and only requires water when the top inch of soil becomes dry.
Botanical Classification: Maranta leuconeura
The Red Prayer Plant has beautiful, painterly-like centers of light green and red veins on its velvety, dark green leaves. This plant is ideal for adding color to window sills, mantles, or shelves because of its brilliant foliage and slow growth.
It’s simple to grow the Red Prayer Plant.
It will thrive if you put it in a sunny location, keep the soil moist, and water the leaves once a week.
The Red Prayer plant is so named because of the way the evening-folded leaves resemble hands clasped in prayer. The Prayer Plant is a native of the Brazilian rainforests, and while it can tolerate certain low light levels inside, it likes bright, indirect sunshine and high humidity levels.
Prayer plant leaves move with the light. The leaves are folded in and more compressed at night, then each day, as the sun rises, they spread out.
All Calatheas pray, right?
The particular movements of the leaf of these plants during the night and day cycle led to the emergence of the name “prayer plant.” Some people claim that the leaves take on a stance that resembles the praying hands at night when they open up and close. This movement is frequently described as the plant praying by those who describe it. The leaves fall to the ground during the day. Typically, the movement is faint and unobtrusive. On occasion, though, you can hear the leaves rubbing against one another and even catch a glimpse of the plant waving.
Fun fact: Because of the ten black spots that appear on most of the leaves, maranta leuconeura kerchoveana is also known as the Ten Commandments plant. This complements the name of the prayer plant well.
The Prayer Plant Nickname
The term “prayer plant” does not refer to any particular plant species. It’s a moniker that is frequently used to refer to plants in the Marantaceae family. That family includes calathea plants.
The maranta, calathea, goeppertia, stromanthe, and ctenanthe plants make up the family. During the cycle of night and day, all of these plants move their leaves, albeit some do so more radically than others. No of which of these categories they belong to, all of these plants are known as “prayer plants” because they do so.
Calathea is a prayer plant, then. Yes, calathea plants can be called “prayer plants,” and many people do so because it is not a scientific name for them. In some stores, they are additionally frequently offered under this name.
However, plants from the maranta group (maranta leuconeura Kerchoveana, maranta tricolor, etc.) are regarded as genuine “prayer-plants, and the maranta group is typically the plant mentioned when reading about “prayer-plants.” This group’s leaf movement is likewise the most pronounced.
It should be noted that the leaves of the calathea plant can actually stop moving when they aren’t receiving the proper care or when the environment isn’t ideal. In order for your calathea to flourish, you need determine what caused it to stop closing at night and fix it.
What is the name of a prayer plant?
Maranta leuconeura, often known as the prayer plant or praying hands, is a flowering plant in the Marantaceae family that is indigenous to the tropics of the New World. It has spreading leaves that, as darkness draws near, turn upward, maybe in a prayer for evening vespers. In conditions that are suited, the plant can be grown as a ground cover, and in temperate areas, it is a typical houseplant.
The prayer plant is a perennial with modest growth that spreads vegetatively by rhizomes. In contrast to the leaf’s medium green color, juvenile leaves have brown patches on either side of the midrib that turn emerald green as they mature and eventually turn moss green. The underside of the leaf is gray-green or purple-green, and ornamental variants have been created with eye-catching red venation. The newest leaf sheaths, which are arranged in two vertical rows, are where new leaves first appear. As the new leaf emerges from the leaf sheath beneath it, the larger half rolls around the smaller half. Each petiole (leafstalk) and leaf base have a thickened region called a pulvinus, which controls how the leaf moves. The tiny spike-shaped flowers range in color from white to pale purple with purple streaks. Rarely do indoor plants bloom.
Why doesn’t my prayer plant pray?
Maranta leuconeura’s leaves open and close in response to variations in the amount of light in its surroundings. In ideal circumstances, healthy prayer plants would typically sway their stems and leaves throughout the day. They don’t need to move, though, in order to be doing well.
Nevertheless, any time the behavior and appearance of your plant alter, it is a good sign that you need to investigate what happened. When your Maranta leuconeura stops moving due to a condition, this is typically not the only sign. If nothing else, Marantas are quite talkative since they express their annoyance when something is wrong immediately away.
The most frequent causes of your Prayer Plant ceasing to move and pray are excessive light or insufficient light, the potting soil becoming too dry, or a reaction to shock. Additionally, it can be a mix of a few of these. Fortunately, it should be easy to figure out what stopped your plant from moving. Once the problem has been located, you can take the appropriate action to restore your Prayer Plant’s regular, healthy motion.
Calathea Freddie—prayer plant or not?
Tropical natural plant from Brazil called Calathea concinna, also referred to as Calathea Freddie. This is one of the Calatheas, or prayer plants, which spread their leaves at morning to catch the sun. For a peaceful night’s sleep, plants remove their bare leaves in the evening.
You will undoubtedly appreciate these plants’ circadian cycle. The leaves are lustrous, long, and light green in hue with distinct, darker-colored zebra stripes and borders. This plant is a wonderful option for indoor plantation and growing in pots and containers.
You have my word! These gorgeous Calatheas are ideal for giving your house and business the essential “oomph” and aesthetic appeal. Interesting? Take a closer look at the brash and alluring Calathea concinna Freddie plant.
Calatheas close at night; why?
No of the species, Calatheas can all close their leaves at night. It is a natural reaction that has developed to aid plants in conserving energy during periods of less activity and exposure to lower light levels, such as those encountered in the evening or on cloudy days.
The leaves of healthy catheas close at night and reopen in the morning. A plant may not be able to react to light cues effectively if it is ill or under stress, and its leaves may stay open constantly.
A Calathea that remains open at night is a sign of a serious issue. Your plant can be stressed, and it will need assistance to get back to working properly.
Are prayer plants lucky charms?
Every year, individuals compile a collection of fashionable or lucky goods depending on their personal views. Since we have no means of knowing what is ahead for us, wishing for a little luck by following trends may only help make things a little easier to bear because they may serve as a guidance on what we may do to confront the days ahead.
Some of the prayer plant species have some of the most stunningly gorgeous and decorative leaves in the plant kingdom, earning them the name Bartolomeo Maranta after an Italian physician and botanist of the sixteenth century. The leaves of a prayer plant should be full, six inches long, and climb from a small core stalk before draping downward.
Why is prayer plant the plant of the year in 2021 while it is also a common houseplant?
The Maranta tricolor is the most prevalent species of prayer plant that is grown today (M. leuconeuraerythrophylla). Together with its leaves’ gradated green tones, it has striking crimson veins.
The color red is associated with luck and happiness in Chinese culture and feng shui, the ancient art and science that has its roots in China and dates back almost 3,000 years.
Since they don’t grow much taller than eight inches, prayer plants are good for group displays because they are spreading, low-growing plants. Similar to a greenhouse, they thrive best in bright, indirect light, with warm, wet, gentle circulation, and lots of fertilizer.
A prayer plant loves the temperatures seen in a typical home. Their leaves may be harmed by lower temperatures. It is preferable to use a peat-based potting mix with a pH of 5.5 to 6.0 because it also enjoys an extremely humid atmosphere and acidic soil. You may also use all-purpose potting soil for indoor plants as long as it drains effectively.
Since these plants are particularly vulnerable to drought during their growing stage, water them frequently and make sure the potting soil doesn’t dry out. To prevent fungal issues, do not allow the plant to become wet either. In the winter, watering should be minimized.
Prayer plants can live a long time with appropriate care and could end up being the charm that homeowners need to bring a little sunshine into their gray days. And given what happened in 2020, requesting divine favor and taking extra efforts to ensure good fortune might not be a terrible idea.
How long do plants used in prayer live?
The Maranta leuconeura, often known as prayer plant, is one of the most beautiful and spiritual plants you can find. These plants, which are native to the tropics, are low maintenance, have beautiful green foliage, and exhibit unusual adaptive traits.
Prayer plants require a potting mix that drains well but is consistently moist, strong indirect light, high humidity levels, and temperatures between 65 and 75 F. During the growing season, fertilize every two weeks, and prune as needed up to three times a year.
It’s important to get these elements perfect if you want to grow plants that are strong and resilient. Prayer plants frequently live for far over thirty years. Although taking care of a prayer plant involves some attention to detail, both novice and experienced gardeners may do the task.