World’s Best Plant for a Bathroom

Here in the office we are always talking about how Alexa’s favorite house plant deserves a medal: it’s been thriving in her bathroom for five years.

“Five years?” I asked, just to make sure I had that right. (I can barely keep a house plant alive for five months.)

“Yeah, an ant plant is a cool plant,” Alexa said. “In the wild, ants live in them.”

“Ants,” I repeated.

Alexa looked up from her computer. “If you are writing this down, please make a note that ants have never lived in the plant in my bathroom,” she said.

Of course they haven’t. That is not an ant climbing up the wire.

Photograph by Alexa Hotz.

Above: A climbing Dischidia Pectinoides like Alexa’s is native to the tropics and thrives in a humid environment with filtered light (like a bathroom); it’s $5 from Epiphytica.

As for the ants, in the jungle (but not in Alexa’s bathroom) they live in the plants’ hollow sacs. The plants’ tendrils will hold tight to a wire or other vertical support structure.

Thinking of adding a house plant to your bathroom? See DIY: Maidenhair Fern for Bathroom Greenery.