Remarkable Leaves
A leaf’s job is to catch sunlight, but leaves do it in many colors, patterns, and shapes: red and purple pigments, gold and cream patches, painted spots, and leaves split into dozens of leaflets.
Purple Alternanthera
Alternanthera dentata
Its leaves are deep purple because a purple pigment covers the green chlorophyll underneath. The plant still makes its food from sunlight, like any green leaf.
Banana Croton
Codiaeum variegatum ‘Banana’
Narrow, twisted leaves splashed with yellow, a little like small bananas. Crotons are in the spurge family, the same family as the garden’s euphorbias.
Begonia
Begonia sp.
A begonia with bronze, ruffled, spotted leaves. Begonia leaves are lopsided, one side of the midrib bigger than the other, and their seeds are as fine as dust.
Caladium
Caladium bicolor
Heart-shaped leaves painted pink, red, white, and green, thin enough to glow when sunlight shines through them. It grows from a tuber and rests underground in the cool season.
Chicken Gizzard Plant
रातो पाते फूल
Iresine herbstii
Its notched, rounded leaves are said to look like a chicken’s gizzard. Bright red veins run through leaves of deep red and purple.
Coleus
Plectranthus scutellarioides
No two coleus look alike: breeders have made leaves in almost every mix of green, red, purple, pink, and yellow. It is in the mint family, with the same square stems.
Earth Star
Cryptanthus bivittatus ‘Ruby Red’
A small bromeliad, a relative of the pineapple, whose wavy leaves form a flat star on the ground. Its red color deepens in brighter light.
White Fittonia
Fittonia albivenis
A net of bright white veins shows every vein in the leaf. It comes from the rainforest floor in Peru and likes shade and damp air.
Golden Penda (First Love)
Xanthostemon chrysanthus
A tree from the rainforests of northeastern Australia, with glossy leaves bunched at the branch tips and bright red new growth. Its fluffy golden flowers are mostly long stamens, and birds come for their nectar.
Dark-Leaf Crape Myrtle
असारे फूल
Lagerstroemia indica
This crape myrtle has purple-black leaves instead of green ones, which make its red flower clusters stand out even more.
Neon Pothos
Epipremnum aureum ‘Neon’
The same species as golden pothos, bred for bright lime-green leaves. Paler leaves have less chlorophyll, so it grows more slowly in dim light.
Philodendron ‘Thai Congo’
Philodendron erubescens
Philodendron means “tree lover” in Greek: in the rainforest, these plants climb tree trunks toward the light.
Butcher’s Broom
Ruscus aculeatus
What look like stiff leaves are really flattened stems, and tiny flowers, then red berries, grow right in the middle of them. Butchers once scrubbed their chopping blocks with bundles of it.
Tapeworm Plant
Homalocladium platycladum
Its segmented, ribbon-like “leaves” are really flat green stems that do the food-making. True leaves appear only briefly and then drop.
Silverberry
गुहेली
Elaeagnus sp.
The undersides of its leaves are covered in tiny silver scales that reflect sunlight and slow water loss. Its roots host bacteria that capture nitrogen from the air.
More in Looks, Scents, and Surprises
The garden is alive and changes through the year. Some plants flower, fruit, or rest only in certain seasons, so what you see depends on when you visit.
See them for yourself
Every plant here grows on our campus in Bhaktapur. Walk the garden on your visit.
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