The World Foliage Plant Industry - Acta Horticulturae

HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE FOCUS
The World Foliage Plant Industry
Jianjun Chen, Dennis B. McConnell and Richard J. Henny
During the last century and a half, the foliage
plant industry has become truly global.
The current situation can be simplified as
four centers of foliage plant origins (Africa,
Asia, Australia, and Central and South
America), four regions producing propagules
(Asia, Central and South America, Europe,
and North America), and three regions of
finished plant production (Asia, Europe, and
North America). Today someone living in
Poland may be watering a Dieffenbachia cultivar
in his home that was initially propagated
in a tissue culture laboratory in China,
finished in the United States, and then sold
at the Aalsmeer auction in the Netherlands.
That scenario omits the fact that the
Dieffenbachia species used to develop the
cultivar were collected in Brazil and
Colombia and then hybridized in England!
Figure 1. Potted foliage plants: (A) Codiaeum, (B) Monstera, (C) Cordyline, (D) Tacca, (E)
Nepenthea, (F) Dracaena, (G) Anthurium, (H) Alocasia, (I) Syngonium, (J) Vriesea, (K)
Aglaonema, (L) Chlorophytum, (M) Calathea, (N) Spathiphyllum, (O) Guzmania, (P)
Philodendron, (Q) Dieffenbachia, (R) Schefflera.
Foliage plants, defined literally, would include
all plants grown for their beautiful leaves rather
than for flowers or fruits. In general horticultural
terms, foliage plants are those with attractive
foliage and/or flowers that are able to survive
and grow indoors (Fig. 1). Thus, foliage
plants are used as living specimens for interior
decoration or interior plantscaping (Fig. 2). In
common terminology, foliage plants are referred
to as houseplants. However, in the tropics
they may also be grown under shade as landscape
plants (Fig. 3).
Starting from cuttings, tissue cultured liners, or
seeds, foliage plants are generally produced in
soilless media confined by containers in shaded
greenhouses or shadehouses. Some foliage
plants used as interiorscape trees are grown in
full sun for the first part of their production
cycle, and then grown under shade. Regardless
of their specific production protocols, all plants
have to be managed properly including light,
temperature, water, fertilization, and pest control
until they approach marketable sizes called
finished plants (Chen et al., 2005). The plants
are then acclimatized, graded, and shipped to
destinations for interiorscaping. Acclimatization
is a seriate procedure in which light intensity,
nutrient supply, and irrigation frequency are
reduced to anatomically and physiologically
alter the plant so that it will survive and even
thrive after shipping and placement in an interior
environment. Small pot plants may require
several weeks to acclimatize, while large
interior trees may require a minimum of six
CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 45 • NUMBER 4 • 2005 • 9