Pilea peperomioides, known as Chinese money plant, pancake plant,
lefse plant, or missionary plant, is a species of flowering plants in
the family Urticaceae,
It is native to Yunnan Province in southern China. Growing to 30 cm (12 in) tall and wide, it is an erect, succulent, evergreen perennial, with round, dark green, peltate leaves up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter on a long petiole.[1]
P. peperomioides was first collected by George Forrest in 1906, and again in 1910, in the Cangshan mountain range in Yunnan Province.
In 1945 the species was rediscovered by Norwegian missionary Agnar Espegren in Yunnan Province when he was fleeing from Hunan Province.
Espegren took cuttings with him back to Norway, by way of India, in 1946 and from there it was spread throughout Scandinavia.
P. peperomioides is an example of a plant which has been spread amongst amateur gardeners via cuttings, without being well-known to botanists.
Its true identity was not finally established until the 1980s. The first known published image appeared in the Kew magazine in 1984. (http://www.wildchicken.com/nature/garden/ga008_a_chinese_puzzle.htm
With a minimum temperature of 10 °C (50 °F), in temperate regions P. peperomioides is cultivated as a houseplant. It is not particularly fussy about soil type and like a soak and drain type watering cycle. As it grows, the lower leaves will go yellow and drop off leaving a woody 5 to 8mm thick stem, which can be left to drop over the edge of the pot naturally or trained to grow up with support.
It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 2013.
It is native to Yunnan Province in southern China. Growing to 30 cm (12 in) tall and wide, it is an erect, succulent, evergreen perennial, with round, dark green, peltate leaves up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter on a long petiole.[1]
P. peperomioides was first collected by George Forrest in 1906, and again in 1910, in the Cangshan mountain range in Yunnan Province.
In 1945 the species was rediscovered by Norwegian missionary Agnar Espegren in Yunnan Province when he was fleeing from Hunan Province.
Espegren took cuttings with him back to Norway, by way of India, in 1946 and from there it was spread throughout Scandinavia.
P. peperomioides is an example of a plant which has been spread amongst amateur gardeners via cuttings, without being well-known to botanists.
Its true identity was not finally established until the 1980s. The first known published image appeared in the Kew magazine in 1984. (http://www.wildchicken.com/nature/garden/ga008_a_chinese_puzzle.htm
With a minimum temperature of 10 °C (50 °F), in temperate regions P. peperomioides is cultivated as a houseplant. It is not particularly fussy about soil type and like a soak and drain type watering cycle. As it grows, the lower leaves will go yellow and drop off leaving a woody 5 to 8mm thick stem, which can be left to drop over the edge of the pot naturally or trained to grow up with support.
It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 2013.
