Looking for a houseplant that ’s both decorative and unfussy ? The genus Dieffenbachia might be just what you ’re looking for !
This classic plant has grace life rooms for decades , and we ’re all intimate with it to some point — but did you know there are actually many dissimilar species and eccentric of Dieffenbachia ?
Below , let ’s have a look at the most common wild Dieffenbachia species and a few of the endless cultivar that nurseries and hobbyist have develop over the years . recover some divine guidance and pick your deary !
Dieffenbachia species
The genus Dieffenbachia is by nature discover in the woodland of Central and South America , although there are probably more of these plants in living rooms around the human beings than in their natural home ground .
Thanks to their decorative foliage and easy care , they ’ve been among the most popular houseplants globally for pretty much as long as folks have been growing verdure in their homes !
There are more than 50 different mintage of Dieffenbachia within the genus , but you ’re unlikely to find many of these in their natural country at your local plant life shop or garden middle . They are , however , used extensively by nurseries for interbreeding purposes in attempts to commingle the best of two plant into a whole new commercially viable cultivar .
This being said , there are two Dieffenbachia species youcanfind for sales event quite well . These are also the original parent plants for many of the cultivars we ’ll discuss after .
Dieffenbachia seguine (synonym: Dieffenbachia maculata, D. picta)
Like many other industrial plant genus , Dieffenbachia is plague with taxonomic confusedness . designation is n’t always logical , and D. seguine is a good model of this .
Throughout the eld , this Dieffenbachia has had a bunch of different scientific names . Although ‘ seguine ’ is now the bear species name , it ’s still sometimes consult to as D. maculata or D. picta .
Dieffenbachia seguine can be found in the wild from Mexico all the way down to Brazil . Even without any selective cultivation , this is a very attractive plant . It features cream diversification on sturdy , non-white green leaves .
Dieffenbachia amoena
Another taxonomic problem case , the Latin name Dieffenbachia amoena is widely used but is actually not considered an accepted denomination . It ’s anomen dubium , or a doubted name . But since no one appears to have declare oneself any alternative yet , I ’ll just stick with ‘ amoena ’ !
D. amoena is the forefather of most of the XL type of Dieffenbachia . In the state of nature , it can reach up to 6 1/2 infantry in peak . Even in our homes it tend to turn very improbable over sentence , with broad leaves and a thick stem . As with D. seguine , the leaf is beautifully variegate and very decorative .
Where to buy Dieffenbachia plants :
Dieffenbachia cultivars and hybrids
Dieffenbachia ‘Reflector’
One of the current superstar in the world of Dieffenbachia cultivar is call ‘ Reflector ’ . I ’m not surprised by its popularity , because this is a really unparalleled plant .
It skylark a beautiful camouflage traffic pattern in different sunglasses of Green River , ranging from calx to almost yellow and abstruse emerald . by all odds a wishlist - worthy plant .
I particularly like Dieffenbachia ‘ Reflector ’ as a cheaper option to the in demand but costly Aglaonema pictum ‘ Tricolor ’ , which I discussed in the mail ontypes of Aglaonema houseplantsand which it resembles quite a bit .
As we ’ll see for many of the Dieffenbachias on this list , houseplant cultivars produced by nurseries are often patent . This is not the case for Dieffenbachia ‘ reflecting telescope ’ ; not much is known about its origins . Although it ’s lately gained huge popularity , it actually appears to have been around for a while .
Dieffenbachia ‘Memoria Corsii’
A post portion out by Jolene Foliage 思凝 ( @foliagelove_r )
‘ Memoria Corsii ’ is one of the older Dieffenbachia cultivars , in all likelihood dating back to the ‘ seventy . This spectacular plant can be recognise by its unsparing leaf pattern , with a moody green rim , lighter folio nerves and spot in green and Ag .
It ’s not a case of Dieffenbachia you ’ll see around much anymore , but I ’d say it ’s more than deserving the effort of track down !
According to a 1976 written report , Dieffenbachia ‘ Corsii ’ ( as the researchers referred to it ) is the issue of a cross between D. seguine ( shout D. maculata in the newspaper publisher ) and D. wallisii or D. weirii .
Dieffenbachia ‘Camille’
‘ Camille ’ is one of the classic case of Dieffenbachia , a cultivar that ’s always been popular and is still very vernacular today .
The result of a mutation in yet another variety show , the unpatented Dieffenbachia ‘ ne plus ultra ’ , ‘ Camille ’ is easily told aside from its parent plant by its leaf blueprint . Rather than speckled leafage , it sports solid emollient colouration on the inside of the leaves .
Dieffenbachia ‘ Camille ’ itself has formed the cornerstone for a bunch of other Dieffenbachias over the years , including such cultivar as ‘ Carina ’ , ‘ Rebecca ’ and ‘ Sarah ’ .
Dieffenbachia ‘Tiki’
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Another Dieffenbachia with a dainty disguise pattern is a cultivar called ‘ Tiki ’ . This one has relatively elongated leaves . The leafage has dark edges , lightsome fleeceable leaf veins and a mottled figure of dreary and sluttish , silvery speckles in the middle .
Dieffenbachia ‘ Tiki ’ is apatentedcultivar resulting from a mutation in the aforementioned Dieffenbachia ‘ Memoria Corsii ’ , which it does resemble . The dispute is mostly in the leaf material body , which is narrower , and the increased amount of silver colour .
The registration for this plant took place in 1989 , which means the patent expired in 2009 .
Dieffenbachia ‘Mars’
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There is n’t much info out there about where Dieffenbachia ‘ Mars ’ get from exactly , nor when this cultivar was first produced , but she ’s a beauty !
I just love speckled Dieffenbachias , and its pattern is precisely what makes ‘ Mars ’ ( which is not dissimilar to ‘ Reflector ’ in terms of spirit ) so spectacular .
Like many of the older cultivar , Dieffenbachia ‘ Mars ’ is the parent industrial plant for a bunch of other type of Dieffenbachias . One example is the somewhat speckled ‘ Paco ’ , which waspatentedin 1995 but never became very popular in the houseplant Falco subbuteo . Shame !
Dieffenbachia ‘Green Magic’
A stake shared by Plantyosa ( @plantyosa )
Another cultivar whose origin are different to pin down is Dieffenbachia ‘ Green Magic ’ , and I ca n’t find who first developed it .
In any case , I imagine it looks a lot like the barbarian Dieffenbachia oerstedii , and some sources do name this species as its parent plant . No way to be certain , though !
Wherever ‘ Green Magic ’ came from , I ’m a sports fan of its evenly dark green foliage , which is n’t something commonly seen in Dieffenbachias . The leave are comparatively elongated and the fundamental leaf vein is a wanton ointment green in people of color , which make for a rather dramatic burden .
Dieffenbachia ‘Tropic’
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Yep , there ’s a whole squad of ‘ Tropic ’ Dieffenbachias ! It all appears to have come out in 1967 , when apatentwas request by a nursery in Florida ( where most houseplant are mature in the US , thanks to the favorable clime ) . The letters patent have-to doe with to a mutation of Dieffenbachia amoena , named ‘ Tropic Snow ’ , and was granted in 1969 .
Dieffenbachia ‘ Tropic Snow ’ before long became , and still is , one of the most popular type of Dieffenbachias .
In 1987 it was followed by ‘ Tropic Sun ’ , apatentedmutation of ‘ Tropic Snow ’ with yellower folio people of color . A cultivar named ‘ Tropic Alix ’ was also stick in , but never appear to have been patented nor become popular .
In the 1990s , a baby’s room in Brisbane , Australia , kicked off a breeding program and end up producing a whole line of products of Dieffenbachias carry the ‘ Tropic ’ name . These are not related to the original ‘ Tropic Snow ’ , though ; they ’re crisscross between a crew of other metal money and cultivar .
A few of the most prominent ‘ Tropic ’ Dieffenbachias include :
Dieffenbachia ‘Panther’
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Wow ! Here ’s another beautiful Dieffenbachia that ’s just impossible to pretermit . ‘ Panther ’ features elongated foliage with a wide , glowering green flange . The interior of the leaf is a idle , silverish green in coloring , while jaundiced spot dot the integral airfoil of the leaf .
As with a lot of other cultivars discussed here , the origins of Dieffenbachia ‘ Felis concolor ’ seem to be a piece of a enigma . The authors of studies published in 1976 and 2008 note that nothing is known about where it came from ; the 2008 study mentions it may not be a cultivar , but a raving mad mutation or species .
Dieffenbachia ‘Compacta’
As the name suggests , Dieffenbachia ‘ Compacta ’ is a cultivar bred specifically for a more compact growth pattern . The relatively pocket-size leaves produce closer together than in ‘ normal ’ character of Dieffenbachias , and the works also tends to make more offshoots . All this makes for a diminished plant but a rather uncivilized look !
‘ Compacta ’ is unpatented , but it has been around for a long time . The previously mentioned 1976 study list its parent plant life as Dieffenbachia seguine . glasshouse have used this kind in the production of a good bunch of other cultivar .
Dieffenbachia ‘Maroba’
A post apportion by @green.dela.creme
Here ’s another upshot of a mutant in the aforesaid Dieffenbachia ‘ Tropic Snow ’ . It ’s called Dieffenbachia ‘ Maroba ’ , a pretty cultivar with big , round foliage and a distinctive pattern of visible radiation and coloured green chevron and speckles . Very reminiscent of the original parent plant , Dieffenbachia amoena !
Thepatentfor ‘ Maroba ’ was granted to a Dutch glasshouse in 1995 and retrogress in 2014 .
Dieffenbachia ‘Camouflage’
A post share by shalina ( @tribebythetrees )
‘ disguise ’ is the result of a ad-lib variation in the aforementioned Dieffenbachia ‘ Panther ’ . It was patented in 2000 in Florida ( letters patent expired in 2020 ) . The name tell it all : this cultivar sport a dramatic camouflage pattern !
Interestingly , Dieffenbachia ‘ Camouflage ’ really does n’t expect much like ‘ Felis concolor ’ at all . Its somewhat lanceolate foliage is calcined lime green , with slender dark unripe edges . There are dark speckles on the intact leaf airfoil , almost like someone splattered blusher on them .
Dieffenbachia ‘Sterling’
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As we ’ve seen , some Dieffenbachia cultivar are the result of crossing twoothercultivars , which can lead to rather confusing “ family trees ” and muddled origins .
Another example of this practice is Dieffenbachia ‘ Sterling ’ , which according to its patent ( cede in 2002 , drop dead in 2022 ) is the love baby of D. ‘ Tropic Marianne ’ and a comparatively unknown cultivar called D. ‘ triumph ’ .
Thanks to its mysterious green foliage , Dieffenbachia ‘ Sterling ’ actually resembles D. ‘ Green Magic ’ ( talk over earlier ) more than its own parent industrial plant . The difference is in the folio vein : in ‘ Green Magic ’ , only the central vein is visible radiation in color . In ‘ Sterling ’ , the side veins are also a silvery green .
Dieffenbachia ‘Crocodile’
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Let ’s come together out the lean with one of the most unusual Dieffenbachia cultivar , called Dieffenbachia ‘ Crocodile ’ . This motley can be recognized by its lancelike , dark green foliage with a central silvery pattern of dapple . What really makes it unique , however , are the underside of the leaves .
Thanks to a mutation , the leaves on D. ‘ Crocodile ’ feature a unknown grain along the cardinal vein that really is almost reminiscent of crocodile skin . This is n’t just the most vulgar Dieffenbachia , and it ’s not flash either , but it ’s on my wishlist for sure !
author :
Chen , J. , Henny , R. J. , Norman , D. J. , Devanand , P. S. , & Chao , C. C. T. ( 2004 ) . analytic thinking of genetic relatedness of Dieffenbachia cultivar using AFLP markers . Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science , 129(1 ) , 81 - 87 .
Li , Q. , Chen , J. , Stamps , R. H. , & Parsons , L. R. ( 2008 ) . variant in chill sensitivity among eight Dieffenbachia cultivar . HortScience , 43(6 ) , 1742 - 1745 .
