Caladium bicolor

Caladium bicolor is the tuberous South American species behind the huge modern range of named Caladium cultivars sold every spring across UK garden centres: thin, papery, heart-shaped leaves in almost any combination of green, white, pink and red, held on tall slender petioles above the soil. Unlike most other aroids on this site, Caladium grows from a true tuber and is genuinely deciduous: it dies back to the tuber each autumn/winter and must be kept dry and dormant until it resprouts in spring, making its care cycle closer to a dahlia or begonia than to an evergreen houseplant aroid. It is an enormous seasonal market in its own right, prized for bedding, patio containers, and summer houseplant displays.

Native range

Amazon basin, Brazil and neighbouring South America

Classification

Genus

Caladium

Family

Araceae

Type

Wild

Growth habit

Tuberous, seasonal: dies back to a dormant tuber each year

Morphology

Leaf shape

Broad cordateHeart-shaped foliage, featuring a rounded notch (sinus) where the leaf stem attaches. (heart-shaped)

Leaf length

15-30 cm

Leaf width

10-22 cm

Petiole colour

Green, tall and slender

Venation

Prominent primary veins radiating from the base

Texture

Thin, papery, semi-translucent

Variegation

Highly variable across named cultivars: pink, red, white and green patterning depending on selection

Growth habit

Clump of leaves emerging directly from a below-ground tuber; dormant and leafless in winter