The Raven ZZ plant is one of the most popular and fashionable houseplants. It’s easy to see why. Raven’s leaves turn an electrifying lime-green color when new growth emerges. Each leaflet develops a beautiful purple-black hue as it matures. The effect is hypnotic.
Raven ZZ plant is not only a lovely houseplant, but it’s also one of the easiest to cultivate indoors, as it tolerates a broad range of lighting and moisture conditions. It may flourish in almost any space of the house or business.
This slow-growing indoor plant looks great on desks and tabletops while it’s young. With proper care, it can grow to be 4 feet tall or more over time, becoming more more spectacular as it gets older.
Look for Costa Farms’ Raven ZZ plant in your favorite retailer’s Trending Tropicals selection. A list of our in-store and online retailer partners may be found here.
Raven was discovered in Asia in 2015, and its discoverer trademarked it, giving us exclusive rights to propagate it in North America.
Why is a Raven ZZ black?
The raven Zamioculcas can survive in very low light. As a result, it’s appropriate for use in the office or in dimly lit areas such as bathrooms. However, if you want it to live and grow, keep it in a bright, well-lit area away from direct sunlight.
- It should be placed near a window that receives the greatest sunlight (South in the Northern hemisphere, North-facing when in the Southern hemisphere).
- During the brightest hours, make sure the sun does not directly hit it (11 am to around 3 pm). Install a thin curtain veil or position it to the side of the window.
If you’re going to keep the plant outside, give it only part sun in the mornings and late afternoons.
Color and hue of the Raven ZZ plant
The darkening of the black ZZ plant is due to time. Fresh leaves begin as a vibrant green color and fade to black over time.
It can take up to two months for a stem and leaves to fully recover, however it normally happens after six weeks.
The hue fades from bright green to dark green to purple black, and exposure to bright lights or artificial illumination has only a little effect.
How was Raven ZZ made?
The Raven ZZ is now protected by a plant patent. This implies it can’t be duplicated and sold by just anyone in the United States. It can only be multiplied and sold by registered nurseries who have a contract with the original breeder. There are three ways to produce a back-up raven ZZ plant if you only want one for yourself.
Propagating raven ZZ plants by stems cuttings
The best technique to propagate raven ZZ plant stem cuttings is to use them. Remove a stem with a length of at least 6 inches. Replace the water in the jar with the stem every three or four days. In about three weeks, roots will appear at one end of the stem.
After three to a month, the roots should be approximately an inch long, at which point you can transplant the stem into a well-draining container. If water propagation fails to produce roots, LECA propagation can be used. On a snake plant leaf cutting that wasn’t rooted in water and was going to decompose, I had amazing success using LECA propagation.
Does a raven ZZ plant flower?
Flowering time: Although ZZ plants can produce flowers, it is quite unusual. They also don’t produce exceptionally lovely flowers. This plant is more well-known for its glossy, black foliage. The leaves of this plant are either a rich shade of green or, in the case of a Raven ZZ, a stunning shade of black.
This plant is best suited to a windowless workplace or a washroom with only a limited amount of fluorescent light.
ZZ (light) Plants will thrive in extremely low light environments. Or even spaces with no natural light, as fluorescent lighting can be used as a substitute for natural daylight. The plant’s glossy leaves reflect light back into a room, brightening the atmosphere around it.
This low-light-loving houseplant is ideal for those dark corners of your home where most other houseplants would perish.
Zamioculcas zamiifolia has been around for hundreds of years and is native to Africa’s arid regions. The propagation potential of the ZZ plant was discovered in the 1990s by a Dutch nursery. The ZZ plant was first commercially marketed in 1996 from Holland to the rest of the world. It has since become a firm favorite in both offices and homes.
Plants have a dense canopy of large, dark green leaves. It has a number of characteristics that make it a popular house and office plant.
This leafy plant can withstand neglect, is drought resistant, and thrives in low-light environments, including those with artificial illumination. ZZ Plants grow slowly, making them manageable for those with hectic schedules. It will grow to a height of 1 meter. The plant’s spread is determined by the size of the container it is housed in.
Swollen rhizomes under the earth will allow this plant to thrive and spread. ZZ Plants prefer to be kept root bound, but if you give it enough room in the pot, it will produce more rhizomes and offshoots, allowing it to expand further.
You’ll notice when your plant becomes pot constrained. It will distort the contour of a plastic nursery pot and may even push the plant out the top. Now is the time to propagate your ZZ Plant. It’s simple to propagate a ZZ. Remove the plant from its pot and brush off the soil. This will expose the rhizomes (which resemble potatoes), which you can then divide and replant. If you pot more than one rhizome together, your ZZ Plant will develop faster and stronger.
The ZZ Plant is an excellent air cleaner. Researchers discovered that this plant was particularly effective in removing pollutants like xylene, toluene, and benzene from the air in a NASA study conducted in the 1980s.
What’s different about this plant?
One of the easiest houseplants to care for is Zamioculcas zamiifolia. Where other plants may struggle, it will thrive. It’s perfect for rooms with little or no natural light. It may also grow in artificial light, making it an excellent office plant.
Its rhizomes retain water, making it drought tolerant, and it’s the perfect splash of green for those of you who live hectic lives or travel frequently. It can be left unattended for an extended amount of time. It would also be an ideal plant for vacation rentals and Airbnb residences, which typically have no or few houseplants.
How big does a raven ZZ plant get?
It’s a slow-growing plant that will reach a height and width of roughly 30 inches over several years. Raven caters to houseplant lovers’ yearning for novel and exotic plants that are also easy to maintain alive, similar to the super-popular black succulents.
How much sun does a raven ZZ need?
In general, ZZ plants are wonderful to have. They tolerate shadow well, making them a fantastic plant to start with and one of my 11 Hard to Kill Plants, but they also thrive in indirect sunlight. The larger plants have a lovely presence and have a stunning vertical shape.
They require relatively little water in addition to being able to handle low light.
It’s often suggested that you should acquire a ZZ plant and forget about it.
Why is my Raven ZZ green?
Yes, the new growth will shoot forth from the dirt in a vibrant green color that contrasts well with the older black Raven stalks. This is very natural, and the sprouts will darken with time.
The new growth matches the regular ZZ plant’s green, but it appears to be a brighter green. Of course, I was afraid that mine was returning to a conventional ZZ (which would still be lovely), but I was determined to retain the Raven’s dark green/dark purple tones.
Do Raven ZZ plants like to be root bound?
It’s difficult to tell when it’s time to repot your favorite houseplant, especially when some require more space than others. You might be wondering what ZZ Plants (Zamiifolia Zamioculcas) are “Do ZZs enjoy being tethered to their roots?” in addition “When is the best moment to transplant them?” says the narrator.
ZZ Plants despise being confined to their roots. Large underground rhizomes take up a lot of room inside a container. Root rot and fungus are more likely when too many rhizomes are forced to reside in a tiny pot. Every two years, ZZs should be replanted into a pot that is one size larger than the one in which they previously resided.
While pruning up roots may help for other houseplants, ZZs have rhizomes beneath the surface that resemble bulbs or tubers. That indicates your ZZ needs place to extend in order to expand. Repotting your plant every two years into a container one size larger than its former home is a decent rule of thumb, but there are a few other factors to keep in mind. Continue reading!
What is ZZ plant good for?
With its wide, appealing, dark green leaves, the ZZ plant has a lot of advantages for businesses and residences. The ZZ plant is resistant of neglect, drought, and low light levels without becoming irritated. Its smooth, glossy leaves reflect light and brighten spaces. ZZ grows slowly to a height and width of two to three feet, so it isn’t a monster plant that quickly outgrows containers.
The ZZ plant is also an air cleaner, and researchers discovered in a NASA study that it is particularly good at eliminating contaminants like xylene, toluene, and benzene from the air.