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Pothos
The most-owned houseplant in America, and it earns it: pothos grows in a dim office, in a jar of water, and through weeks of neglect. The one rule is that it is not food - every part fires calcium oxalate needles into the mouth of anything that chews it.
Not food. Every part carries needle-sharp calcium oxalate crystals: chew a leaf and they fire into the lips, tongue and throat, causing immediate burning pain, drooling and swelling. Toxic to cats, dogs and people. It is rarely life-threatening - the pain stops most animals fast - but call a vet or poison control, and go in at once for drooling that will not stop, retching, or any trouble swallowing or breathing. Wear gloves to prune; the sap stings skin and badly irritates eyes.
Overview
Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) is the plant on top of the filing cabinet, the one trailing off the bookshelf, the cutting a friend rooted in a jam jar and handed over. It is the most widely owned houseplant in the United States, and it earned that place honestly: heart-shaped leaves marbled in gold or cream, several feet of vine in a season, and a tolerance for low light and forgotten waterings that has given it its other name - devil's ivy, for a plant that seems impossible to kill.
The one rule is that it is not food, and chewing it hurts immediately. Like everything in the arum family, pothos is packed with calcium oxalate raphides: microscopic needle-shaped crystals held in specialised cells under pressure. Bite a leaf and they are injected into the lips, tongue and throat, and the burning, drooling and swelling start within seconds. Cats, dogs and toddlers all get the same treatment. It is rarely dangerous - the pain is so instant that animals spit it out - but it is genuinely painful, and a small number of cases swell enough to be worth an emergency visit.
Pothos is also endlessly confused with heartleaf philodendron, which sits beside it on the same shelf at every garden center and looks near-identical. The confusion is harmless - same care, same crystals, same rules - but there is a one-second test that settles it, in Grow below.
One last honest note, because pothos is sold on the claim: it will not clean your air. That idea comes from a 1989 study of plants sealed in small chambers, and later work found the effect is trivial next to simply opening a window. Keep a pothos because it is beautiful and nearly unkillable, which is reason enough.
Quick facts
- Life cycle
- Perennial, lives about 20 years
- Height
- 72 in12 to 240
- Spread
- 24 in12 to 36
- Support
- Grows better on a trellis or stake
- Cold
- Killed by frostdamaged below 50°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 95°F
Part sun or part shade or shade · medium water · well-drained soil · 12 in apart (8 to 18) · transplant or cuttings
When to plant
Nothing is open today. Spring transplanting opens 5 months, Mar 1 to Sep 15.
- Transplant Mar 1 – Sep 15 Opens in 161 daysIndoors year-round, but pot up cuttings and repot in the warm half of the year, when roots move fastest. Do not plant pothos outdoors anywhere frost-free - in Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico it climbs and smothers standing trees and is listed as invasive.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
One stage to settle in, then two that repeat each year. Windows are typical; your zone and weather move them.
Rooting a cutting or settling a new pot
Day 0 to 30- WaterPot in ordinary potting mix and water once, then waitPothos wants nothing exotic - a standard peat or coir potting mix in a pot with drainage holes. Water it in thoroughly once, let the excess drain away, and then leave it alone until the top couple of inches are dry. New plants are killed by kindness far more often than by neglect.
- InspectBright indirect light, not a sunny windowsillSet it where it gets plenty of light but no direct sun on the leaves - a few feet back from an east or north window is ideal. Direct midday sun bleaches and scorches the foliage. It will survive in a dim corner, but the variegation fades toward plain green there.
- ProtectDecide where it lives before it trailsChoose a spot the vines can hang from without reaching the floor, a table edge or a cat's shelf. Pothos is chewable and painful to chew, so the sensible place for it is high, on a wall bracket or a tall shelf, rather than trailing down where an animal or a toddler meets it at head height.
Watch for- Soggy mix that never dries (the main cause of early failure)
- Scorched pale patches from direct sun
- Trailing ends within reach of pets or small children
Vine growth
Mar to Oct, every year- WaterWater when the top two inches are dryevery 9 daysPush a finger into the mix; if the top two inches are dry, water until it runs from the drainage holes, then empty the saucer. If it is still damp, wait. A pothos that is slightly underwatered goes limp and recovers in an hour; one that is overwatered rots at the roots and does not.
- PruneCut it back to keep it full - wearing glovesLeft alone, pothos makes long bare vines with leaves only at the ends. Snip the vines back to a leaf joint whenever they get straggly and the plant branches from behind the cut. Wear gloves: the cut ends weep a sap that stings skin and is genuinely bad in an eye. Every trimmed piece is a free new plant.
- FertilizeFeed lightly through the growing seasonA balanced liquid houseplant fertilizer at half the label strength, roughly monthly from spring to early autumn, is plenty. Pothos grows perfectly well on very little. Stop feeding in winter, when growth slows and unused fertilizer salts build up in the pot and burn the leaf tips.
- SupportGive it a pole if you want big leavesTrailing pothos keeps its juvenile leaf, palm-sized and heart-shaped. Let it climb a moss pole in good light and the plant shifts gear: leaves get progressively larger and eventually split into deep lobes. This is the same plant, not a different variety - it is the reason wild pothos looks nothing like the one on your shelf.
Watch for- Long bare vines with leaves only at the tips (too little light)
- Variegation fading to plain green (too little light)
- White cottony mealybugs in the leaf joints
- Fine webbing and stippled leaves in dry indoor air
Winter slowdown
Nov to Feb, every year- WaterWater much less in winterShort days and cool rooms slow the plant almost to a stop, and it uses a fraction of the water it did in July. Keep watering on the same schedule and you will rot it. Check the mix instead of the calendar, and expect the gap between waterings to double.
- ProtectKeep it off cold glass and away from draftsPothos is a tropical plant and sulks below about 55°F. Leaves touching a freezing windowpane go black in patches, and a spot beside an outside door in January will do the same. Move it a few feet inward for the winter and it comes through untouched.
Watch for- Blackened patches where leaves touch cold glass
- Yellowing lower leaves from winter overwatering
- Fungus gnats in mix that stays damp too long
Watch out for
5 to know. 1 is high-risk: Root Rot from Overwatering. 5 are active in September.
Root Rot from OverwateringSeverity High DiseasenowLower leaves yellowing while the mix stays damp, a sour smell from the pot, stems going soft, brown or black at the soil line, and a plant that wilts even though the soil is wet.
Lower leaves yellowing while the mix stays damp, a sour smell from the pot, stems going soft, brown or black at the soil line, and a plant that wilts even though the soil is wet.
Tip the plant out, cut away every soft brown root, and repot the healthy remainder in fresh mix in a clean pot, watering sparingly until it recovers. If most of the root system has gone, take clean cuttings from the healthy top growth and start the plant again - that usually works better than nursing the original.
Water by checking the mix rather than the calendar - only when the top inch or two is dry - use a pot with drainage holes, empty the saucer after every watering, and cut back sharply on water from November to February.
The single most common way an indoor plant dies. Soil-borne fungi rot the roots and stem base in potting mix that is kept wet, in a pot without drainage, or in a saucer that is never emptied - and it is worst in winter, when short days and cool rooms mean the plant uses a fraction of the water it did in summer while the watering schedule stays the same.
MealybugsSeverity Medium PestnowWhite cottony specks where a leaf stalk meets the stem, sticky patches on leaves or the surface beneath the plant, black sooty film, and new growth that comes out puckered or stunted.
White cottony specks where a leaf stalk meets the stem, sticky patches on leaves or the surface beneath the plant, black sooty film, and new growth that comes out puckered or stunted.
Dab each colony with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, then spray the whole plant with insecticidal soap or horticultural oil, covering leaf undersides and joints. Repeat weekly for at least a month, because eggs keep hatching. Cut off badly infested growth rather than trying to save it.
Inspect any new plant carefully and keep it apart from the others for a few weeks, check leaf joints whenever you water, and wipe the leaves occasionally - most indoor infestations arrive on a new purchase and spread from there.
Small sap-sucking insects that hide as white cottony tufts tucked into leaf joints, along stems and under leaves. Indoors there is nothing to eat them, so a small infestation becomes a permanent one - they weaken growth, deform new leaves and coat everything below in sticky honeydew that turns sooty black.
Oxalate Burn from ChewingSeverity Medium DisordernowSudden pawing at the mouth, drooling, refusal to eat, retching, or a swollen tongue and lips in a pet; a crying child near a chewed leaf; and any change in breathing or voice, which is the sign that matters most.
Sudden pawing at the mouth, drooling, refusal to eat, retching, or a swollen tongue and lips in a pet; a crying child near a chewed leaf; and any change in breathing or voice, which is the sign that matters most.
Call a veterinarian, an animal poison line, or poison control immediately - do not wait for it to develop. Rinse the mouth with water and follow the advice you are given. Go to an emergency clinic or emergency room at once if drooling will not stop, if swallowing is difficult, or if breathing or the voice changes. For sap in an eye, flush with running water for 15 minutes and be seen the same day.
Hang or shelve pothos above pet and toddler reach rather than trailing it down to floor level, keep rooting jars and trimmings off counters, and wear gloves when pruning so the sap never reaches your eyes. If a cat grazes plants regardless, keep pothos out of that room.
Every part of pothos contains calcium oxalate raphides - needle-shaped crystals held under pressure in specialised cells that fire on contact. Chewing a leaf drives them into the lips, tongue and throat, producing immediate burning pain, heavy drooling, swelling and often vomiting. It is rarely life-threatening because the pain stops the animal or child at once, but the swelling occasionally becomes serious, and the sap also causes skin irritation and painful eye injury.
Fungus GnatsSeverity Low PestnowLittle black flies around the pot and at nearby windows, and larvae - tiny translucent maggots with black heads - in the surface of mix that never dries out.
Little black flies around the pot and at nearby windows, and larvae - tiny translucent maggots with black heads - in the surface of mix that never dries out.
Dry the mix out further, hang yellow sticky traps to catch the adults, and for a persistent population water in a Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis product, which kills the larvae without harming the plant. Repeat until the traps come up empty.
Let the top inch or two of mix dry out between waterings, which breaks the life cycle on its own, avoid standing water in saucers, and top-dress with a layer of coarse grit or sand so adults cannot lay eggs at the surface.
Small dark flies that drift up from the pot when it is disturbed. The adults are harmless; their larvae live in the top inch of permanently damp potting mix and feed on organic matter and, when numerous, on fine roots. They are less a pest in their own right than a symptom that the mix is being kept too wet.
Spider MitesSeverity Low PestnowFine pale speckling across the upper leaf surface, a dull bronzed cast to the foliage, and gossamer webbing in the leaf joints - hold a sheet of white paper under a leaf and tap it to see the mites drop.
Fine pale speckling across the upper leaf surface, a dull bronzed cast to the foliage, and gossamer webbing in the leaf joints - hold a sheet of white paper under a leaf and tap it to see the mites drop.
Rinse the whole plant thoroughly under a shower, paying attention to leaf undersides, then treat with insecticidal soap or horticultural oil and repeat every five to seven days for three or four rounds to catch newly hatched mites.
Raise the humidity around the plant, keep it away from heating vents and radiators, and rinse or wipe the leaves regularly - spider mites struggle on foliage that is clean and not baking in dry air.
Nearly invisible mites that thrive in the hot, dry air of a heated house, feeding on the undersides of leaves and leaving a fine pale stippling that spreads until the whole leaf looks dusty and bronzed. Severe infestations spin fine webbing between leaves and stems.
Good & bad neighbors
First rule: keep Sago Palm apart. Named here as a correction, not a planting rule.
Plant nearby
-
The plant pothos is constantly mistaken for, and a genuinely good shelf partner - identical light, water and feeding, and identical calcium oxalate toxicity, so no mix-up can hurt you. To tell them apart: a philodendron unfurls each new leaf from a papery sheath that dries and drops; pothos has no sheath, and its leaf stalk has a groove down the top.
-
Another arum-family houseplant with the same light and water needs and the same oxalate crystals, and a useful neighbour because it wilts visibly the moment it is thirsty - it will tell you the whole shelf is due for water before the pothos shows any sign at all.
- Traditional pairings, thin evidence
-
The native North American cousin, and useful for understanding pothos: it carries exactly the same calcium oxalate raphides, and the burning-mouth reaction people describe from a jack-in-the-pulpit corm is precisely what a chewed pothos leaf does. One family, one mechanism.
Keep apart
-
Named here as a correction, not a planting rule. Pothos teaches that houseplant toxicity means a painful mouth and a phone call - sago palm teaches otherwise: one or two of its seeds can kill a dog through liver failure. Do not carry the pothos lesson across to every houseplant.
-
Not a growing conflict - a reasoning one. Dieffenbachia is the same family and looks like more of the same easy foliage, but it carries several times the crystal load plus enzymes that make the injury worse, and a mouthful swells the tongue and throat for days. Do not let it join the shelf of harmless trailing plants in your head, or in your house at toddler height.
Varieties · 9
You pick one when you add Pothos to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Golden Pothos
Good first pickWaxy mid-green heart-shaped leaves with irregular gold streaking, on trailing or climbing vines.
variegatedvigorouslow-light-tolerantThe default pothos and the fastest of the lot: mid-green heart-shaped leaves streaked and splashed irregularly with yellow-gold. It holds up in lower light better than the paler kinds, though the gold thins out there, and it is the one that will run six feet along a shelf in a season.
Neon
Good first pickUniform bright chartreuse-yellow heart-shaped leaves.
solid-colorbrightSolid chartreuse-yellow leaves with no variegation at all - the brightest thing you can put in a shaded room. New leaves come out almost acid-yellow and deepen slightly with age. It scorches in direct sun and dulls toward ordinary green in real gloom, so bright indirect light is where it earns its name.
Marble Queen
Green leaves heavily streaked and speckled with white and cream, often half-and-half.
variegatedslowneeds-brighter-lightHeavily marbled white and cream over green, sometimes more white than green. Because there is less chlorophyll to work with it grows noticeably slower than golden pothos and needs brighter indirect light to keep its pattern - in a dim corner it reverts toward green and sulks.
Jade
Solid glossy deep-green heart-shaped leaves.
solid-colorlow-light-tolerantvigorousPlain deep-green pothos with no variegation to lose, which makes it the best choice for the genuinely dark corner - a north-facing hallway or an interior office. It grows as fast as golden pothos and needs exactly the same care.
N'Joy
Small green leaves with clean-edged patches of pure white.
variegatedcompactslowSmall leaves with crisp, clean blocks of white against green, more sharply defined than Marble Queen's marbling. Compact and slow-growing, which makes it a good desk or small-shelf plant, but it wants good indirect light and resents being kept wet.
Pearls and Jade
Small leaves mottled green, silver-grey and white, with speckled margins.
variegatedcompactslowA sport of Marble Queen with small leaves mottled in green, grey-green and white, often with the variegation running to the leaf edge and a speckled look where the colours meet. Slow, tidy and well suited to a small pot rather than a long trail.
Grower tips
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