Catching some Z’s

Over summer I tend to evict my house plants - they droop and fade in the heat and I get sick of keeping the water up. But as the weather cools off they all come creeping back in. Most of the plants are in my kitchen and living area, which is north facing and quite bright during the day. This is where last week’s mattress button plant ended up. I have a few spots in the rest of the house, though, that are screaming for a bit of greenery. The problem is that it’s much darker in those rooms and they’re a lot further from the tap. Don’t get me wrong, our house isn’t huge, we’re probably talking 10m from the back of the house to the kitchen sink and it’s a straight line, but, you know, 10m is a lot further than 2m… so no prizes for guessing which plants get watered more.

This week I bought a ZZ or Zanzibar gem plant for the end of the hallway. Hailing from eastern Africa (mostly in Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar), the ZZ plant (short for Zamioculcas zamiifolia) has thick succulent shiny leaves and grows from a rhizome, making it quite drought tolerant. It’s also very happy in low light. I have one outside that got forgotten under a thick clump of gingers and is not only living but has even produced new leaves! (And believe me, it’s dark down there!).

The ZZ plant is part of the Araceae or aroid family, but is the only one to exhibit CAM photosynthesis - which plants use to survive dry conditions and times of drought - not the typical tropical conditions other aroids are found in. The genus name Zamioculcas was also derived from the Zamia genus name, which are cycads and totally unrelated, but have very similar shaped foliage. If you’re familiar with cardboard palms (Zamia furfuracea), I’m hoping they’re just as hardy!