Where Does the Aglaonema House Plant Come From?

The Aracceae Family

• Aglaonema, also called Chinese evergreen, belongs to the plant family Aracceae, which includes philodendron and pothos, two other popular and easy-to-grow houseplants.
  
  

Natural Habitat

• More than 21 varieties of Aglaonema grow wild in the jungles of southeast Asia, northeast India and Southern China. They also can be found in the jungles of Malaysia and the Philippines.
  
  

Introduction in the West

• Their lovely variegated foliage and heartiness make the plants well-suited to commercial production. Plant experts and collectors, such as Dr. Thomas B. Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Dr. Frank B. Brown of the Valkaria Tropical Garden in Florida, have spent years collecting the plants and bringing them back to this country for propagation and development.
  
  

New Varieties

• Cross pollination of Aglaonema proved to be a difficult task and only a few new cultivars were produced between the 1960s and 1980s. One problem was that the plants flower infrequently and produce few seeds.
  
  

More Recent Progress

• Programs for the study of Aglaonema production have identified methods for inducing large numbers of the plants to flower simultaneously to allow more opportunity for cross-breeding. That breakthrough coupled with the discovery of more colorful natural cultivars in the Philippines and elsewhere will increase the number of choices.