Snake Plant / Sansevieria

Snake Plant / Sansevieria (Dracaena trifasciata, formerly Sansevieria trifasciata) is one of the toughest and easiest plants you can grow. Its tall, upright, sword-shaped leaves are beautifully patterned in bands of deep and silvery green, giving it a strong architectural presence without taking up much space. It is sometimes called Mother-in-Law’s Tongue, but I much prefer Snake Plant or simply Sansevieria, the older botanical name that many of us still know it by.

I used to grow Sansevieria in pots indoors when I lived in Canada, where it was such a dependable houseplant. Here in Ecuador it is a completely different experience. In the garden it becomes incredibly vigorous, spreading through its underground rhizomes and forming large, strong clumps that seem perfectly at home in the climate.

Sansevieria is incredibly adaptable. The thick, somewhat succulent leaves store water, allowing the plant to tolerate periods of dryness and neglect remarkably well. Mature plants can occasionally surprise you with tall stems of small pale greenish-white flowers that are often beautifully fragrant, especially in the evening.

It also has a history of traditional medicinal use in different parts of Africa and Asia, where preparations from the leaves and roots have been used externally for wounds, swelling and other skin complaints. This is not generally considered an everyday edible herb, however, and the leaves contain strong plant compounds, including saponins, so I think of Sansevieria primarily as a resilient, useful garden and household plant with an interesting traditional medicinal history.

One of the reasons Sansevieria has become such a beloved houseplant is its ability to tolerate surprisingly low light, although it grows faster and develops stronger colouring when given bright indirect light or gentle sun. Outdoors, it does very well in partial shade and can tolerate considerably more light once acclimated. It prefers loose, well-drained soil and should be allowed to dry between waterings. Too much water is much harder on this plant than too little.

It is also wonderfully easy to propagate. Established clumps can simply be divided at the rhizome and replanted, and new plants can also be grown from sections of leaf. Once it finds a place it likes, it asks for almost nothing while steadily producing new shoots.

Sansevieria is a wonderful plant for someone who says they cannot grow plants. It is strong, sculptural, drought tolerant and remarkably forgiving, yet a mature clump can become absolutely beautiful. In the garden it gives structure and deep green foliage year-round, while indoors it brings a little piece of living green into even the easiest-to-forget corner.