List: Houseplants With Mostly-Chartreuse Foliage

This list differs from some of the previous ones in that most of these plants will be particular cultivated varieties, not species. I don't know exactly when or how it happened, but at some point in fairly recent history, somebody decided that the houseplant market was ready for this color, and then all at once, bam, every plant had a yellow-green twin. I've been wondering for quite a while whether there was some kind of explanation for this sudden proliferation -- some kind of genetic engineering manipulation that could generate a chartreuse version of anything, perhaps? -- but as best as I can tell, this was a change of fashion, not of genes. It appears that nature's been pitching us chartreuse sports for forever, and there's only recently been a market for them.

As with some of the previous lists, this list is true only for certain values of "houseplant," "mostly," and "chartreuse." You may disagree with some of my choices. It also probably goes without saying that we're (for the most part) talking about plants that are yellow-green when healthy, not yellow-green due to disease or nutrient deficiencies. Withhold magnesium long enough, and you can turn almost anything yellow.

Asplenium antiquum, the Japanese bird's-nest fern. (Possibly not technically chartreuse, but at least a very very light yellowish-green. This also goes for Asplenium nidus, the . . . um . . . "regular" bird's-nest fern.)

Dracaena deremensis 'Limelight.' (D. d. 'Lemon-Lime' and 'Goldstar' are sometimes close, but the amount of actual chartreuse varies a lot with them.)

Epipremnum aureum 'Neon.' (pothos)

Pelargonium x hortorum 'Vancouver Centennial.' (geranium)

Philodendron 'Golden Emerald.'

Philodendron hederaceum 'Lemon-Lime.' (heart-leaf philodendron)

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Quarterback.' (coleus) Other varieties are available which contain some chartreuse in the leaves.

Spathiphyllum cv., maybe 'Golden Glow.' (peace lily)

Vanilla planifolia, variegated. (vanilla orchid)

Vriesea ospinae var. gruberi.
Which of the ten do I like? I'm a huge fan of Philodendron hederaceum 'Lemon-Lime,' in large part because the new leaves come in as a pinkish-orange color, mature into yellow, and then eventually settle down into a light yellow-green with time. Since all three ages are present at any given time, this makes the plant a lot more colorful than similar plants like Epipremnum aureum 'Neon,' and I also find it way easier to grow than Epipremnum, so it's win-win for me.

Dracaena deremensis 'Limelight' is another plant I really like. But I don't think I've ever met a D. deremensis that I didn't like. So that explains that.

The Spathiphyllum-that-might-be-'Golden-Glow' is my third choice in this group. I'm not ordinarily that thrilled with spaths. A well-grown one is, it's true, a thing of beauty, but they're still so common that it's hard to get excited about them. But this particular one, whatever its name might be, is pretty darn different, and it's just as well-behaved as all the others: treat it well and it will look fine.

I like the Vriesea too, but it is so far kind of undecided about me, so it doesn't make the top three list.

Any chartreuse houseplants I've left out?

Not pictured:
Some Asparagus spp. (asparagus ferns) are a very light yellowy green, particularly the new growth, and especially A. densiflorus sprengeri and A. d. myersii.

Dieffenbachia 'Rudolph Roehrs;' possibly some other Dieffenbachia cvv.

I've seen a few Dracaena sanderiana (ribbon dracaena, "lucky bamboo") cultivars around that had the same basic coloration as D. deremensis 'Lemon-Lime,' with a green center and chartreuse margins. I don't have a cultivar name for them, but they were pretty striking, as D. sanderiana go. Asiatica has a solid-chartreuse variety called 'Lucky Gold.'

A few chartreuse cultivars of Ficus maclellandii (long-leaf fig) and F. microcarpa are known, though I've never seen them in person, only on-line at places like Asiatica. Asiatica also sells a Ficus benjamina it calls 'Monique,' which supposedly has chartreuse or yellow leaves with a green center, but I've seen 'Monique' before and it does no such thing, so they may be mistaken about the name. Or I am. One of us is clearly very confused.(UPDATE: I've seen a plant like this where I used to work which was tagged 'Margo;' Googling for it didn't actually turn up anything conclusive, but there was a page about a company called "Margo Nursery Farms," which had just patented a chartreuse variety of Ficus benjamina it was calling 'Golden King.' So it may be that the names got crossed at some point, and the plant I saw was 'Golden King.' The pictures which came up for the name 'Golden King,' though, were different from the plant I saw, though, and looked more like the standard variegated Ficus. But the point is: I have seen a chartreuse Ficus benjamina, in person. I'm just not sure what it's called.)

There's a Hedera canariensis variety, the name of which escapes me, where the new growth is light green to chartreuse. It sounds cooler than it is, though.

Asiatica Nursery sells a Homalomena lindenii 'Lemon Glow,' which resembles H. 'Emerald Gem' except for the color.

There are some chartreuse or chartreuse-and-green cultivars of Nephrolepis exaltata (boston fern), like 'Rita's Gold' and 'Tiger Fern.'

Pandanus veitchii (Veitch's screw pine) probably shouldn't be chartreuse, but sometimes is anyway, perhaps due to nutrient deficiency. The reason I'm including it anyway is because the plant doesn't otherwise appear to suffer when this is happening, I haven't definitively proven to myself that fertilizer fixes the problem, and there is also a cultivar with chartreuse edges that stay chartreuse even if the rest of the leaf comes in green. So it's borderline, but close enough.

Pedilanthus tithymaloides (devil's backbone) is ordinarily solid green, but the variety I have is mostly yellowish, with a little flame of green in the leaf centers.

A 'Golden Xanadu' Philodendron exists, though I've never seen it in person. Asiatica has one called 'Xanadu Gold,' which is more or less what I imagine 'Golden Xanadu' to be.

Asiatica has a Philodendron 'Hammerhead Gold,' which looks like a chartreuse P. bipennifolium.

Also from Asiatica: Philodendron 'Jungle Fever,' 'Malay Gold,' 'Ring of Fire,' and P. bipinnatifidum 'Gold Satin.'

Philodendron 'Moonlight.'

Asiatica also has a few chartreuse or chartreuse-and-green Rhapis excelsa varieties. They are all appallingly expensive, as both Rhapis and Asiatica tend to be.

There are a few Soleirolia soleirolii cultivars which are chartreuse; we had trouble keeping them going at work, though.

I know of one Syngonium podophyllum cultivar that's about half chartreuse and half green, with the basic pattern of 'White Butterfly,' though I'm not sure what it's named.

Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger' is also only a partial houseplant, but it's so vividly chartreuse that I'm willing to let that slide. And you probably could grow it indoors, if you really wanted to.