| Description | A relatively easy to grow evergreen shrub from the tropics. Can be grown as an indoor flowering plant. |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | (ab-YEW-tih-lon) |
| Plant Type | All Plants, Perennial Tender |
| Hardiness Zone | 9-11 |
| Sunlight | Direct-bright, too much sun and not enough water will result in crispy critter leaves. |
| Moisture | Needs to be kept evenly moist. If allowed to get to dry it will have a plant-tantrum and drop lots of leaves and flowers. |
| Growing Media | average house |
| Temperature | average house-cool |
| Flowers | This is a winter flowering house plant. The flowers come in orange and white. They seem to be transparent and you can see the beautiful pattern of the veins. |
| Leaves | The variegation in the foliage is caused by a virus. Not to worry.... it doesn't harm the plant. The leaves are maple-like in shape. |
| Dimensions | Can get up to 6 feet tall. Easily controled by pruning. |
| Maintenance | It may get whitefly or should I say it will get white fly. An easy non-poison control is to spray the underside of the leaves with a mix of 1 tablespoon of dish soap to a quart of water or use and insecticidal oil as per manufactures directions. |
| Propagation | Easily started from seeds or cuttings. The variegated varieties need to be started from cuttings. Cuttings that are taken from the newer growth root quicker than once taken from older wood. I have found that a rooting hormone helps speed the rooting process. |
| Native Site | Brazil, Africa |
| Author's Notes | This plant is a great duel purpose plant. Grow it as a patio plant in the summer, cut it back, put in a bright window and you have a great flowering plant for the winter. The flower production is best during periods of bright light. |
| Notes & Reference | #18-House Plant Encyclopedia (Nico Vermeulen) |
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