Money Tree

Check your light →

A mix of sun and shade echoes the riverbanks and rainforests it comes from. It copes with medium light, but long direct sun can scorch its leaves.

Each leaf opens like a hand of five to nine leaflets on a long stalk (NC State), and those hands turn toward the window. A braided trunk can’t straighten itself, so a quarter turn every week or two keeps the crown even instead of lopsided toward the glass.

Its native swamps never see a chill. Indoors it’s happiest at 65-75°F (NC State), and a summer outside, out of strong wind, works if it’s back in before nights near 45°F.

As for windows, morning sun from an east one, or a spot set back from a south or west one, gives it the brightness without the glare.

Every 7-10 days in summer, 10-14 in winter. Its swollen trunk base stores water, but bone-dry soil still drops leaves, and standing water brings root rot.

Its species name, aquatica, points to the freshwater swamps and riverbanks where it grows wild (NC State). In a pot, though, roots left sitting in water rot (NC State): a swamp tree that wants its saucer empty.

That riverbank air is humid, and yellowing leaves can signal dry indoor air or soil short on nutrients (NC State). If that bothers you through a radiator-heated winter, grouping it with other plants adds moisture to the air. It’ll keep going either way.

Gone for a while? Two weeks is fine if it’s watered the day you leave. Much longer and it starts dropping leaves, though it grows them back.

A rounded crown on a braided trunk that tops out around 6-8 feet indoors. Keep it low enough that the weave shows, beside an armchair or a bench; the braid holds its shape, and the crown is what you trim.

In the wild it can reach 60 feet, and planted outdoors in cultivation it may top out near 30 (NC State); the indoor version is a pocket edition.

Its canopy is rounded and spreading on low branches (NC State), an umbrella that wants elbow room more than height: the end of a sofa, or an open spot by a waiting-room window where the crown can widen.

Its stems can be kept small enough for bonsai (NC State), and cut pieces can root as softwood cuttings. A cutting grows as a single stem, though; the braid only comes from weaving several young trunks together.

The ASPCA lists it as non-toxic to dogs and cats, though a pet that eats some may get nausea, vomiting or loose stool. For kids, NC State flags only the seeds, which a houseplant never makes.

The ASPCA lists it as non-toxic, though some pets get an upset stomach after a nibble.

Good news, plainly put: the ASPCA names no toxic principle for it at all, and it doesn’t cause skin rashes (NC State), so trimming it calls for no gloves.

The seeds are the only part with a real question mark. They contain cyclopropenoid fatty acids, described as possibly toxic and carcinogenic (NC State), and they come from trees flowering outdoors in the tropics.

One mix-up is worth knowing. Jade plant also goes by money tree, and the ASPCA rates jade toxic to pets, so look for Pachira aquatica on the tag.

With a toddler or a plant-⁠curious cat, this is one of the easier trees to keep on the floor. If someone grazes enough to strip leaves, give it a room they visit less.

1. ASPCA: safe for dogs.
2. ASPCA: safe for cats.
3. NC State Extension: safe for kids.

Cats and dogs: The ASPCA lists it as non-⁠toxic.

Kids: No poison-centre listing; rated from university extension sources. Its sap can irritate skin or eyes.

Happiest at 65-75°F, and it shouldn’t sit below 50°F. It wants at least 35% humidity.

Temperature

65-75°F

Rarely bothered. If something turns up, look in the leaf axils, stem joints and braid crevices for mealybugs, and under leaves along the veins for scale. Aphids cluster on new shoot tips; gnats stay in moist topsoil.

• Mealybugs
• Scale
• Aphids
• Fungus gnats

Not many. Scale and mealybugs now and then, fungus gnats if the soil stays damp, and root rot from standing water.

Scale looks like small brown bumps stuck to the stems and leaves; mealybugs look like tufts of white cotton where the leaves join. Dab them with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, then rinse the plant in the shower, and check again next week.

Fungus gnats are tiny dark flies hovering over the soil; their larvae live in soil that stays damp. Let the top of the mix dry between soaks, which takes 7-14 days in most rooms, and empty the saucer.

Root rot shows as yellowing leaves and a trunk going soft at the base. Empty the saucer, let the pot dry out, and water less often. Now and then a leaf fungus (powdery mildew, or the dark spots of anthracnose) turns up; cut off the worst leaves and keep water off the foliage.

Give it a small turn at each watering so the crown stays even. Feed lightly 6 times in spring and summer, and wipe the leaflets twice a year. In spring, trim shoots for size, and repot one size up only when roots fill the pot.

• Feed6× a year
• Rotate36× a year
• Prune1× a year
• Repot1× a year
• Clean leaves2× a year

A potting mix that holds some moisture but drains fast, in a pot with a drainage hole: it grows along riverbanks in the wild, but it won’t sit in water in a pot.

Repot every two to three years, in spring, into a pot only one size larger, and disturb the roots as little as you can; root damage is another thing that makes it drop leaves.

Food helps it grow: a balanced houseplant fertilizer at half strength every two weeks from spring through summer (per NYBG), and none in winter.

Smooth leaflets fan out from each stalk, all one plain green, with a gentle gloss. The rounded crown only partly covers the soil, so the braided trunk stays in view below.