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Species library › Goeppertia › Goeppertia insignis
Other Well documented

Goeppertia insignis

Rattlesnake plant

The rattlesnake plant, long grown as Calathea lancifolia, is an evergreen prayer plant from the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil. It has slender, wavy-edged pale green leaves up to 45 cm long marked with alternating large and small dark green blotches and purple beneath, and it folds its leaves up at night. It is one of the easier calatheas indoors, wanting warmth, shade, steady moisture and soft water.

Goeppertia insignis
Photo: Cary Bass (now Bass-Deschênes), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Warm-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light ShadeDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
No rest periodGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

It is a terrestrial herb of the shaded floor of lowland Atlantic Forest, growing 60-75 cm tall in humus-rich soil under the canopy.

Recorded elevations run from 82 to 620 m, median 110 m (3 records), so it is a lowland plant.

Brazil Southeast

🔒 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

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.