Prayer Plant (Calathea)

The Prayer plant (Maranta), also know as the Ten Commandments, has become a very popular houseplant due to its compact size and beautiful decorative foliage. The plants pale green leaves are marked with dark patches between the veins, which become darker as the leaf ages, and the underside of the leaf is a gray-green with hints of purple. In its native homelands of Brazil, Asia and Africa the Prayer plant grows as groundcover, spreading across the forest floor from one patch of dappled light to the next. At night the Prayer plant folds its leaves up together, resembling hands in prayer, thus its more common name. Although you will never actually see the leaves ...