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Goldfish Plant Or Orange Columnea

Columnea microcalyx

Goldfish Plant Or Orange Columnea
Photo: Helena Christina van de Pavord Smits, Public domain

Columnea microcalyx, the goldfish plant, is an epiphytic shrub from wet tropical forests that grows on tree branches. Give it bright, filtered light and humid conditions, and keep it out of hot direct sun.

Family
Gesneriaceae (African violet family)
Grows as
Shrub, Epiphyte
Light
Bright indirect
Water
Keep the mix evenly moist in growing season and let the top layer dry slightly between waterings; reduce in winter.
Soil
Well-draining, airy epiphyte mix such as orchid bark with peat or coir.
Temperature
18–29 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Mexico (Chiapas) to N. Venezuela
Climate
wet tropical

About

Columnea microcalyx, called the goldfish plant or orange columnea, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Columnea, native to southeast Mexico, Central America, Columbia and Venezuela. Its cultivar 'Superba' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Other Columnea plants

Columnea purpusii

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Columnea microcalyx by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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