How Do I Find the Name of an Indoor Houseplant?

You can identify houseplants based on their appearance.

According to NASA, if you have houseplants in your home, they can make a difference in your life. Houseplants improve the air quality in a home by filtering out impurities in the air. Some plants do this more efficiently than others. One of the first steps to identifying if your plant is one of these, or simply to learning more about your houseplant to give it better care, is to find the name of your houseplant.

Instructions

1. Look over the garden soil and plant container. Some garden centers place the name of a plant on a tag or sticker that they attach to the plant. This sticker will contain the plant's name.

2. Examine the plant's appearance. You can narrow down the ecosystem that a plant is from by looking over its attributes. A plant from a dry environment that receives lots of sun and little rain will have thick, succulent or hairy leaves. Or the leaves may be needlelike. The soil that the plant is grown in will be well drained and slightly sandy or barklike in texture. Tropical plants will have broad, thin leaves and will be planted in loamy soil with some clay content that is rich in organic materials.

3. Regard the plant further. A plant's appearance will be the biggest indicator of the plant's name. If the plant has leaves, note the leaf color and shape. Other characteristics that can help identify a plant include the texture and appearance of bark, height of the plant and the branching habit of the plant. For example, a peace lily will have upright, spear-shaped leaves with a glossy texture. Cactus will be short with needlelike leaves that grow from a thick, fleshy skin.

4. Consult plant databases to match a plant's appearance with a plant's name, if you do not already know it. One good plant database is the Interior Plants Picture Pages database located at Texas A&M. You can also consult books with pictures of houseplants such as the Houseplant Encyclopedia or The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual.

Tips & Warnings

• You can take the plant, or a leaf cutting, to your nearest county extension service. Agents at the county extension service are trained to recognize many types of plants and will be able to help you identify your plant.

References

• Univeristy of Florida IFAS Extension:FACT SHEET: Hassle-Free Houseplants
• Texas A&M Univerisity: Interiorscape Plants Picture Pages
• The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual: Essential Gardening Know-How for Keeping (Not Killing) More Than 160 Indoor Plants; Barbara Pleasant; 2005
• Univeristy of Missouri Extension: Plants and their Environment
• The Houseplant Encyclopedia;Ingrid Jantra; 2006

Resources

• NASA:Lunar Plant Growth Chamber