Ribbonbush is an evergreen shrub from New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, with flattened, jointed green stems that look like ribbons or segments. It grows in well-drained, moist soil in full sun and tolerates some shade, heat and humidity.
Family
Polygonaceae (Buckwheat family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep soil moist but never soggy, and let the top layer dry slightly between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained sandy loam to clay loam, slightly acidic (pH 5.5 to 6).
Temperature
18 to 30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Easy
Native range
Papuasia
Climate
wet tropical
About
Muehlenbeckia platyclada (synonym Homalocladium platycladum), known as centipede plant, tapeworm plant or ribbonbush, is a species of plant in the knotweed family from New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. It is also naturalized in other tropical regions, including Puerto Rico, India, Bolivia, Madagascar, Nicaragua and Pakistan.
[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 Muehlenbeckia platyclada 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.