What is the Prayer Plant and what are its Benefits?

Prayer Plant

The prayer plant is also called maianthemum balsam and bethroot. It’s a small flowering plant that originates from the Northern Hemisphere. It’s often used as an indoor plant because it thrives well in low light, humid environments such as bathrooms and bedrooms. The prayer plant has a unique appearance; the leaves are long and slender with pointed tips and veins that look like praying hands. The small white flowers of the prayer plant open directly downwards and appear to be praying towards the floor.

What is the Prayer Plant?

The prayer plant is an indoor plant that originates from the Northern Hemisphere. It thrives well in low light and humid environments. The prayer plant has a unique appearance; their leaves are long and slender with pointed tips and veins that look like praying hands. The small white flowers of the prayer plant open directly downwards and appear to be praying towards the floor.

Benefits of the Prayer Plant

The prayer plant makes for an excellent indoor plant because it has a low light requirement, can thrive in a humid environment, and has a long lifespan. Plants that require high amounts of light are often not suitable for those who live in apartments or homes with little natural light. The prayer plant does well in low-light environments and can thrive even if you don’t water it for weeks at a time. Even better, the prayer plant also requires less frequent watering than other plants.

Another benefit of the prayer plant is that it has a long lifespan. The bell-shaped flowers on this small flowering plant are often white and last only one day. They bloom year round and have a sweet fragrance that fills the air when they first open up in the morning. While they only last one day, this will continue to grow more flowers to replace them each day.

It’s easy to care for and doesn’t require much maintenance; all you need to do is make sure it has plenty of water and place it somewhere with moderate sunlight levels or indirect sunlight from a window. Finally, as mentioned before, the prayer plant originates from Northern Hemisphere countries which means you’ll be able to find one near you.

How to Care for a Prayer Plant

The prayer plant is a small and delicate plant that thrives in low light, humid environments. It will grow well in a bathroom or bedroom where the humidity levels are high. If you want to care for this plant, you need to keep it moist at all times. Be sure to water it every day and mist it with water every few days.

You can also place the plant on a tray of pebbles with water so it’s constantly moistened. The plant needs to be kept warm, as well. To achieve this, put the plant on a south-facing window ledge or outside during the summer months so it can absorb some sunlight.

Where to Find a Prayer Plant

The most common place to find from your local nursery. A nursery will have a wide variety of plants, and more specifically, they’ll have different varieties of the prayer plant. You can choose from a variety of colors including white, lavender, pink, blue, and purple. If you want to purchase your own plant online, you can do that as well. There are many websites that sell live plants online for easy delivery just about anywhere in the world.

Conclusion

Prayer plants are so named because they open up and close their leaves in response to the sun, just like the hands in prayer. In addition to being easy to care for, the prayer plant offers many benefits. Give your prayer plant the right amount of light and water, and it will reward you with a healthy, beautiful green plant that provides a peaceful presence in your home or office.

References:

1-Dysploidy and polyploidy trigger strong variation of chromosome numbers in the prayer-plant family (Marantaceae)

Published on 09 March 2020, By Winterfeld

DOI: doi.org/10.1007/s00606-020-01663-x

2-No AccessDewatering of sludge from a water treatment plant in geotextile closed systems

Published Online: May 25, 2015 By M.G.A. Guimarães

DOI: doi.org/10.1680/gein.14.00018