Hypoestes phyllostachya
A small, soft-stemmed shrub from Madagascar, grown worldwide for its pink-, white- or red-spotted leaves. In the wild it grows in warm, partly shaded forest and forest edges, with a hot wet summer and a cooler, drier winter. It needs bright light for good leaf colour, steady moisture and warmth, and it gets leggy fast unless pinched.
Where it grows wild
A herbaceous perennial or subshrub up to about 30 cm tall in cultivation. It grows on forest edges, in clearings and in partly shaded forest in Madagascar, with records such as the Forêt de Andranonaomby. It also turns up around towns, where it spreads easily from seed.
Recorded elevations run from 53 to 1137 m, with a median of 292 m (30 records). It grows from the warm lowlands into the lower highlands.
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