The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Dracaena fragrans
Also called Corn Plant, Dracaena 'janet Craig Compact', Happy Plant, Cornstalk Dracaena
In Singapore: Corn Palm, Palmillo, Fortune Plant, Corn Plant, Senjuang Wangi, Dragon Plant, Iron Plant, Cornstalk Plant (Grown in Singapore)
Dracaena fragrans, the corn plant or cornstalk dracaena, is a slow-growing African shrub or small tree grown mainly as a tough houseplant. It tolerates low light and neglect, so the key is to avoid overwatering.
Dracaena fragrans (cornstalk dracaena), is a flowering plant species that is native to tropical Africa, from Sudan south to Mozambique, west to Côte d'Ivoire and southwest to Angola, growing in upland regions at 600–2,250 m (1,970–7,380 ft) altitude.
In Africa, D. fragrans is commonly grown as a hedge plant. It is suited to frost-free climates and USDA Hardiness zones 10-11. Elsewhere, it is primarily popular as a houseplant and valued for its tolerance of a wide range of indoor conditions, from bright indirect light, to bright shade (which brings out more variegation in certain hybrids) and even deep shade (where it will have a darker green color). It is also very tolerant of neglect. The NASA Clean Air Study indicated that the plant aided removal of indoor pollutants such as formaldehyde, xylene, and toluene; however, these results were not applicable to typical buildings, where outdoor-to-indoor air exchange already removes volatile organic compounds at a rate that could only be matched by the placement of 10–1000 plants/m2 of a building's floor space.
The plant is known as "masale" to the Chagga people of Tanzania, who regard it as holy.
Suji · Tree Dracaena · Lance Dracaena · Dracaena bacularis · Lucky Bamboo · Socotra dragontree · Dracaena concinna · Canary Island Dragon Tree · Zebra Striped Dragon Tree · Iguanatail · Dracaena pethera · Song Of India
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dracaena fragrans 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.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
