Among the most charming pineapple’s colorful cousins are the impish Cryptanthus, known as earth stars for their starry white flowers peeping up from low-mounded rosettes of prickly-edged leaves.
They possess all the virtues of the perfect modern house plant and are not costly or difficult culturally.
Plant lovers or not, we’re all hungry for color these days. The slim, graceful Cryptanthus foliage provides incredible color combinations of cream-white on emerald with magenta tints; mahogany stripes against warm, rosy salmon; silver streaks or blotches on green or bronze-green; and even copper with contrasting purple.
We like symmetrical design, and the Cryptanthus have it. Seldom does a plant get leggy or lopsided?
Cryptanthus is hard to beat when looking for carefree and long-lasting decorative plants.
Characteristics of Cryptanthus Plants
These are permanent dwarfs that seldom outgrow more than one pot or top 6” inches in that many years—in perfect proportion for window sills or narrow shelves.
They like warmth but do not demand high humidity, an apt description of the air in our well-heated homes.
Requiring little water or fertilizer, they have been left to their own devices for two weeks and more with no visible ill effects.
They like the sun, but not the hottest, and will keep compact (although not so brightly colored) in semi-shade. A semi-shade is what most sun-loving indoor plants get outside of a greenhouse.
Growing Cryptanthus Plants
In their native Brazil, Cryptanthus grow in moss and on trees. You can grow them in an orchid mix or sphagnum moss, with or without adding sharp sand.
But if you are fresh out of moss or orchid mix, simply pot them in sandy soil (add some hummus if possible), and you’ll find they’re equally happy.
Be sparing with fertilizer and water; don’t repot until you can see the roots coming out the bottom of the pot.
Propagation of Cryptanthus Plant
Propagation by division is most often recommended. Instead, when the original rosette splits in two, I cut off one, and it usually divides again.
The nearly stemless cutting roots slowly but surely in a pot of moss or soil beside its parent on the window sill. Perhaps this is division, Cryptanthus-style.
Varieties of Cryptanthus Plants
Among the varieties most readily available from greenhouses, florists, and mail-order houses, perhaps the most colorful is C. bromeliads tricolor.
Its tapering brightly variegated cream-on green leaves are tinged carmine on the edge. C. bivittatus (roseus piculs’) is flatter and more star-like.
The olive leaves are overcast with salmon, turning coppery red in strong light.
C. beucheri has curious, spoon-shaped leaves, marbled light-on-dark green. The curled, wavy-edged leaves of C. bahianus combine apple green with deep red.
C. acaulis is fuzzed with pale gray; its variety rubber wears a fur-like beige coat. C. zonatus zebrinus has been aptly nicknamed the zebra plant because of its striking silver-on-purple stripes.
There are several new, named hybrids, and one supplier lists a group of unnamed creations, no two alike.
44659 by Bernice Brilmayer