Chlorophytum comosum (Thunb.) Jacques
Vernacular name: Spider Plant, Spider Lily, Ribbon Plant, Airplane Plant
Species Name: Chlorophytum comosum (Thunb.) Jacques
Family: Asparagaceae
Habit: Perennial herb, usually grown as an ornamental foliage plant; forms a dense basal rosette and produces long, slender stolons bearing daughter plantlets.
Stem: Very short, mostly underground or condensed into a small rhizome; the plant has no conspicuous erect stem. Long slender stolons arise from the basal rosette and produce plantlets.
Leaf: Long, narrow, linear to lanceolate, arching, soft and grass-like, arising in a basal rosette; leaves are commonly green or green with white/cream longitudinal stripes in cultivated forms.
Flowering: Mainly during the warmer growing season, although cultivated plants can flower under suitable conditions.
Flowers: Small, bisexual, white, with 6 tepals and 6 stamens; flowers are borne on slender flowering stalks. Inflorescence long, slender raceme, sometimes somewhat branched; a particularly distinctive feature is that small plantlets may develop from the inflorescence/stolons, giving the plant its characteristic “spider” appearance. The plant records pseudovivipary, with small plantlets produced from the bracts of the inflorescence.
Fruit: Small, triangular to deltate capsule, generally broader than long and containing several seeds.
Uses:
- Extracts of plant are used in the traditional medicine system of Asia and Africa to soothe and treat coughs, burns, asthma, bronchitis and bone fractures.
- Infusions of roots are used by traditional communities of South Africa to protect and regulate pregnancy and for general wellness.
- Extracts of plants are found to have antiproliferative effects and apoptosis in human cell lines.
- It is an ornamental plant, planted in hanging baskets and pots, or can be used as low maintenance ground cover.
- Plant helps in preventing soil erosion and planted on steep gardens embankments or slopes.
- Plant is acknowledged by NASA Clean Air Study to remove pollutants like xylene, formaldehyde and carbon monoxides from the indoor air making it most effective natural air purifier.
