The Prayer Plant (Maranta leuconeura) is a tropical perennial species native to the rainforests of Brazil. It is highly prized as a houseplant for its striking, patterned foliage that displays vibrant colors like deep green, red, and cream. The plant is famous for its characteristic daily movement, called nyctinasty, where the leaves fold upward at night, resembling hands raised in supplication, which gives the plant its common name. This unique behavior and vibrant foliage often lead growers to wonder if the plant ever produces flowers.
The Reality of Prayer Plant Blooms
The Prayer Plant is a flowering species capable of producing blooms. However, it is primarily valued for its ornamental leaves, and the blossoms are considered a secondary event. While the plant flowers naturally in its native tropical habitat, flowering is a much less common occurrence when grown indoors.
Achieving an indoor bloom indicates the plant is thriving and receiving conditions that closely mimic its equatorial forest floor environment. While some sources describe indoor blooming as extremely rare, it happens frequently enough in a well-cared-for plant to be a sign of success. Flowering typically occurs during the active growing season, spanning the spring and summer months.
What the Flowers Look Like
When a Prayer Plant blooms, the flowers are generally small and unassuming compared to the plant’s bold foliage. The blossoms emerge on slender, wiry stalks (spikes or racemes) that extend up and away from the dense mat of leaves. This ensures the small flowers are visible above the foliage canopy.
The individual flowers are typically tubular and delicate. Their coloration is usually white, though they can feature subtle hints of purple, lavender, or pink, depending on the specific variety. Each flower structure consists of three small petals and two larger modified stamens, known as staminodes. These blooms will last for a few weeks before fading.
Essential Care to Encourage Blooming
Encouraging a Prayer Plant to produce flowers requires consistently providing an environment that simulates the warm, humid, and shaded conditions of its native Brazilian rainforest floor. The first step involves providing the necessary energy through proper lighting. Prayer Plants thrive in bright, indirect light, which is essential for photosynthesis to create the reserves needed for flowering.
Placing the plant near a north or east-facing window, or several feet back from a south or west-facing one, is ideal. Direct, intense sunlight can easily scorch the delicate leaves and inhibit growth.
Mimicking the high moisture content of the plant’s natural habitat is important for triggering blooms. These plants require high ambient humidity, ideally maintained between 50% and 80%, for maximum health and flower production. Utilizing a dedicated room humidifier is the most effective method, as misting only offers a temporary, localized increase in moisture. Placing the plant on a pebble tray filled with water, ensuring the pot bottom does not sit in the water, can also help elevate the humidity surrounding the foliage.
Consistent soil moisture must also be maintained, as the plant is sensitive to both overwatering and drying out. The plant prefers its soil to remain consistently moist, but never waterlogged, which can lead to root rot. Water the plant thoroughly once the top one inch of soil has dried out to the touch.
Using tepid, filtered, or distilled water is recommended. Prayer Plants can react poorly to the chlorine and mineral salts often found in hard tap water, which may cause browning on the leaf tips.
To support the energy demands of flowering, establish a regular feeding schedule during the growing season. From spring through summer, the plant benefits from a balanced liquid fertilizer (such as a 10-10-10 ratio) applied every two to four weeks. Dilute the fertilizer to half the strength recommended on the package to prevent chemical burn on the roots. To encourage flower formation, a fertilizer with a slightly higher phosphorus content may be used occasionally.
Maintaining a stable and warm environment is necessary to promote blooming. Prayer Plants prefer a consistent temperature range between 65°F and 80°F, as they are tropical. The plant must be protected from cold drafts and sudden drops in temperature, which can stress the plant and halt the reproductive process. A happy, unstressed plant with sufficient light, moisture, and nutrition is most likely to reward the grower with subtle, delicate blooms.