Sign in Start free
Species library › Dischidia › Dischidia major
Hoyas Partly documented

Dischidia major

Malayan urn vine

A lowland epiphytic vine from Assam and Indochina through Malesia to New Guinea and Cape York, famous for its hollow, urn-shaped leaves that house ants and collect debris and water which the plant then roots into. It twines over the trunks and branches of trees, often decaying ones, in hot, seasonally wet lowlands. In cultivation it wants warmth, bright light, a quick-drying mount or basket and a good soak followed by drying.

At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Bright, filtered lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

An epiphyte that twines around the trunks and branches of trees in wet-tropical and monsoonal lowland forest, preferring decaying trees. It bears two kinds of leaves: small round succulent leaves and hollow pouch leaves up to about 12 cm long, which ants such as Iridomyrmex colonise. The pouches fill with ant debris and rainwater, and the plant sends roots into them. The large share of records from Cape York suggests it is at home in fairly open, seasonally dry woodland and forest edges as well as closed rainforest.

A lowland plant: 54 dated records run from 1 to 914 m with a median of 60 m.

Northern Australia: Cape York Peninsula and the Wet Tropics, QueenslandNew Guinea and the Solomon IslandsMalesia: Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Lesser Sunda Islands, Philippines, Peninsular MalaysiaIndochina: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, MyanmarAndaman Islands, Bangladesh and Assam

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Dischidia major? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Start free Sign in

More Dischidia

Dischidia puberula Dischidia ovata Dischidia astephana Dischidia formosana Dischidia tonkinensis Dischidia vidalii Dischidia diphylla Dischidia hirsuta Dischidia nummularia Dischidia ruscifolia Dischidia imbricata Dischidia oiantha All 137 →

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.