Plant origin finder
Every plant on your shelf is a traveller. A Monstera is a Central American rainforest climber; a snake plant is a West and Central African survivor; lavender is a Mediterranean hillside shrub. Knowing where a plant is from is the shortcut to keeping it alive - it tells you the light, water and warmth it was built for. Tap a region on the map, or search a plant below.
Native ranges follow Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (read through GBIF, 15 October 2026). For the region-by-region story of the plants we have full care guides for, see our plant origins map.
Schematic - each dot marks a plant's home region, not an exact spot.
Central & South America
Warm, humid rainforests - the source of most of the big-leaved plants that thrive in a bright bathroom.
Swiss cheese plant (Monstera)
Southern Mexico & Guatemala
Climbs rainforest trunks toward the light - the higher it climbs, the more its leaves split.
Heartleaf philodendron
Mexico to Brazil & the Caribbean
A forest-floor climber, which is why it copes with lower light indoors.
Peace lily
Tropical Americas (a few species in Southeast Asia)
An understorey plant that flowers in shade - hence its patience with dim corners.
Prayer plant (Maranta)
Brazilian rainforest
Folds its leaves up at night, the movement that earned its name.
Calathea
Tropical Americas, many from Brazil
Grows under the canopy, so it dislikes direct sun and hard tap water.
Anthurium
Tropical Central & South America
Its glossy 'flower' is a bract; many species grow perched on trees.
Nerve plant (Fittonia)
Rainforests of northwestern South America, Peru to Colombia
A humidity lover from the forest floor - happiest in a terrarium.
Arrowhead vine (Syngonium)
Tropical Americas
Changes leaf shape as it matures from ground cover to climber.
Dumb cane (Dieffenbachia)
Mexico to South America & the Caribbean
A fast, leafy understorey plant of warm lowland forest.
Caladium
Tropical Central & South America
Grows from a tuber and rests in a dry-season dormancy.
Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera)
Coastal mountains of SE Brazil
An epiphyte from misty forest - not a desert cactus at all.
Peperomia
Tropics worldwide, most species in Central & South America
Many are small epiphytes with thick, water-storing leaves.
Inch plant (Tradescantia)
Mexico & Central America
A vigorous trailer that roots from any node that touches soil.
Polka dot begonia
Brazil
An angel-wing begonia from the warm, shaded forest understorey.
Money tree (Pachira)
Central & South American wetlands
A swamp tree, often sold with a braided trunk.
Mexico & the arid Southwest
Hot, dry, bright. Home to most cacti and many rosette succulents that want sun and sharp drainage.
Echeveria
Mainly Mexico, south to the Andes
A rosette succulent built to hoard water and shrug off drought.
Golden barrel cactus
Central Mexico
Now rare in the wild, though common on windowsills.
Pincushion cactus (Mammillaria)
Mexico & the SW United States
A small clumping cactus that rings itself with flowers.
Agave
Mexico & the SW United States
Stores decades of energy, then flowers once and dies.
Poinsettia
Southern Mexico
A large shrub in the wild; the red 'petals' are coloured leaves.
Ghost plant (Graptopetalum)
Mexico
A pastel succulent that drops leaves which root themselves.
Zinnia
Mexico
A heat-loving annual that keeps flowering the more you cut it.
Dahlia
Mexico
The national flower of Mexico, grown there long before Europe met it.
Marigold (Tagetes)
Mexico & Central America
Central to Day of the Dead long before it became a border staple.
Cosmos
Mexico
An easy annual that self-sows in poor, sunny soil.
Temperate North America
Prairie and woodland natives - the tough, pollinator-friendly perennials of the cottage border.
Sunflower
North America
Domesticated by Indigenous peoples thousands of years ago.
Purple coneflower (Echinacea)
Central & eastern North America
A prairie perennial and a magnet for bees and butterflies.
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
North America
A tough meadow daisy that thrives on neglect.
Bee balm (Monarda)
Eastern North America
Minty-scented and loved by hummingbirds.
Garden phlox
Eastern United States
A fragrant border perennial of late summer.
Milkweed (Asclepias)
North America
Monarch caterpillars feed only on milkweeds and their close relatives.
Coreopsis (tickseed)
North America
A long-flowering prairie daisy for hot, dry spots.
New England aster
Eastern & central North America
Feeds pollinators when little else is still in bloom.
Mediterranean & West Asia
Hot dry summers, mild wet winters. The aromatic herbs and many spring bulbs began here.
Rosemary
Mediterranean coast
A cliff-and-scrub shrub that wants sun and sharp drainage.
Lavender
Mediterranean
Built for hot, dry hillsides - it sulks in wet soil.
Thyme
Mediterranean
A creeping, aromatic herb of stony ground.
Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Northern Mediterranean
A woody herb that stays evergreen in mild winters.
Bay laurel
Mediterranean
The original laurel wreath - a slow evergreen tree.
Olive
Mediterranean basin
Among the first trees people ever cultivated.
Cyclamen
Mediterranean & Middle East
Grows in winter and rests through the dry summer.
Aloe vera
Arabian Peninsula
Cultivated for so long that its exact wild home is still debated.
Tulip
Central Asia & Turkey
Prized in Persia and the Ottoman Empire long before the Dutch tulip craze.
Hyacinth
Turkey to the Levant & Iraq
A spring bulb bred up from a modest wild flower.
Temperate Europe
Cool woodlands and hedgerows - the shade and cottage-garden classics of a mild climate.
English ivy
Europe & western Asia
A woodland climber that also carpets the ground in shade.
Foxglove
Western Europe
A woodland-edge biennial - striking, and poisonous to eat.
Hellebore
Europe & the Balkans
Flowers in the depths of winter, hence 'Christmas rose'.
Primrose
Europe & western Asia
One of the first flowers of a European spring.
Snowdrop
Europe
Pushes through frozen ground before winter is over.
Lily of the valley
Europe & temperate Asia
A sweetly scented shade spreader - and toxic in every part.
Tropical Africa
From West African rainforest to East African highlands - several near-indestructible houseplants call it home.
Snake plant (Dracaena / Sansevieria)
Tropical West & Central Africa
Stores water in its blades and forgives long droughts.
Fiddle-leaf fig
Western & Central Africa
A lowland rainforest tree - it wants bright, steady light.
ZZ plant (Zamioculcas)
Eastern Africa
Stores water in potato-like rhizomes for the dry season.
Spider plant
Tropical & southern Africa
Sends out plantlets on runners, ready to root anywhere.
African violet
Cloud forests of Tanzania & Kenya
From cool, misty mountain rock - it likes humidity, not heat.
Coffee plant
Ethiopian highlands
A shade shrub of the forest understorey.
Lucky bamboo (Dracaena)
Central Africa
Not a bamboo at all - a Dracaena that grows in water.
Southern Africa
A hotspot of succulents and bulbs, with wet and dry seasons that suit plants used to going thirsty.
Jade plant (Crassula)
South Africa & Mozambique
A succulent shrub that lives for decades on a windowsill.
Haworthia
South Africa
A small succulent from rocky, part-shaded ground.
Bird of paradise (Strelitzia)
South Africa
Named after an 18th-century queen; its flower looks like the head of an exotic crane.
Clivia
South African woodland
A shade-loving woodland plant with fleshy roots that flowers after a cool winter rest.
Geranium (Pelargonium)
South Africa
The 'geraniums' of the windowbox are really pelargoniums.
Gerbera daisy
South Africa
Bred into one of the world's top cut flowers.
Agapanthus
South Africa
The 'lily of the Nile' actually comes from the far south.
Calla lily (Zantedeschia)
Southern Africa
A marsh plant that grows from a rhizome.
Madagascar
An island of one-of-a-kind plants - many kalanchoes, palms and spiny euphorbias are found nowhere else.
Kalanchoe
Madagascar
Most flowering kalanchoes are island natives built for drought.
Madagascar dragon tree (Dracaena marginata)
Madagascar
A slim, tolerant tree that suits low-light rooms.
Crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii)
Madagascar
A spiny succulent that blooms almost year-round.
Areca palm
Madagascar
In decline in the wild, yet one of the most widely grown palms in the world.
Panda plant (Kalanchoe tomentosa)
Madagascar
Fuzzy leaves reduce water loss and sun scorch.
South & Southeast Asia
Monsoon forests and islands - climbers, figs and orchids that love warmth and steady moisture.
Rubber plant (Ficus elastica)
South & Southeast Asia
A forest giant that oozes latex - the source of early rubber.
Moth orchid (Phalaenopsis)
Tropical Asia, mostly Southeast Asia
An epiphyte that clings to tree bark, not soil.
Alocasia
Tropical Asia to eastern Australia
Dramatic leaves from humid, warm monsoon forest.
Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema)
Tropical Asia
A shade-tolerant understorey plant, forgiving of low light.
Jasmine
India & the eastern Himalaya (the tea jasmine, J. sambac)
Night-scented climbers grown for perfume and tea.
Croton
Southeast Asia & the Pacific
Its wild leaf colour deepens with strong light.
Bird's nest fern (Asplenium)
SE Asia to the Pacific
An epiphyte that funnels debris and rain into its centre.
Lipstick plant (Aeschynanthus)
Tropical Asia
A trailing epiphyte with tubular, bird-pollinated flowers.
East Asia
China, Japan and Korea - the temperate shrubs, trees and shade plants behind many garden favourites.
Chinese money plant (Pilea)
Yunnan, China
Spread hand to hand by gardeners long before it hit shops.
Cast iron plant (Aspidistra)
Japan
Famous for surviving the darkest, most neglected corners.
Camellia
East Asia
A woodland shrub; one species gives us all true tea.
Azalea
East Asia
A cool-climate shrub bred into thousands of forms.
Chrysanthemum
East Asia
Cultivated in China for well over a thousand years.
Japanese maple
Japan & Korea
An understorey tree prized for its autumn colour.
Hosta
Japan, China & Korea
A shade perennial grown for its bold leaves.
Peony
China, Mongolia & eastern Siberia
Revered in Chinese gardens for centuries as the 'king of flowers'.
Sago palm (Cycas)
Southern Japan to Taiwan & southeast China
Not a palm but a cycad - an ancient, slow-growing lineage.
Australia & the Pacific
Sun-hardened shrubs and epiphytes adapted to poor soils, drought and fire.
Golden pothos
Mo'orea, French Polynesia
A near-unkillable climber that tolerates deep shade.
Kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos)
Southwest Australia
Fuzzy, bird-pollinated flowers from a fire-prone heath.
Eucalyptus
Australia
Aromatic trees adapted to drought and regular fire.
Bottlebrush (Callistemon)
Australia
Its brushes of flowers are packed with nectar for birds.
Umbrella tree (Schefflera)
Australia & New Guinea
A rainforest tree that stays a tidy shrub indoors.
Staghorn fern (Platycerium)
Australia & SE Asia
An epiphyte that mounts on bark, catching water in its fronds.
Hoya (wax plant)
Asia to Australia & the Pacific
A climbing epiphyte with waxy, sweetly scented flower clusters.
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"Origin" here means a plant's native wild range - not where it is grown or sold today, and not a claim about foraging or eating it. Ranges are broad and sometimes debated by botanists; long-cultivated plants like aloe vera no longer have a certain wild home. Pair this with the plant finder to match a plant to your room, and the light checker to read your window.
Houseplant basics
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