Zebra plant
Calathea zebrina
Kew's current name: Goeppertia zebrina (Sims) Nees
- light
- Part sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 71 cm
- wide
- 41 cm
Marantaceae
Also called Zebra-plant, Zebra calathea
Formerly Calathea binotii, Calathea pulchella, Endocodon zebrinus, Maranta binotii, and 8 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Brazil (Bahia to Santa Catarina)Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Part shade (3 to 6 h)Read from NC State Extension and RHS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Height
- 51 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension and RHS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: NC State Extension 1–3 ft; RHS 0.5–1 m
- Spread
- 30 cm to 51 cmRead from NC State Extension and RHS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: NC State Extension 1–2 ft; RHS 0.1–0.5 m
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension and RHS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Flowers
- White, purpleRead from NC State Extension and RHS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Coldest it survives
- 7 °C (USDA zone 11b)Read from NC State Extension and RHS, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: NC State Extension -1.1 °C; RHS 15 °C
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (8)
- Chinese
- 花葉竹芋, 斑葉竹芋, 绒叶肖竹芋
- Chinese (China)
- 绒叶肖竹芋
- Spanish
- Planta cebra
- Czech
- kalatea pruhovaná
- Polish
- kalatea pasiasta
- Thai
- คล้าม้าลาย
- Finnish
- seepramaija
- Slovak
- kalatea zebrovitá
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Calathea zebrina (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.