15 Exotic Indoor Plants You Haven’t Heard Of But Need To- Weird Indoor Plants

Pilea peperomioides. Chinese money plant or pancake plant. Young Pilea in brown ceramic pot on wooden table against a gray background. Trendy interior design and decoration

Young small sprawling beautiful bush of a house plant Pilea involucrata Moon Valley in a white plastic pot on a white background.
Hoya Obovata in a small pot on wood
Succulent tillandsia xerographica in the hands of a close-up on a gray background.
Alocasia plants. Stylish green plant in ceramic pots on wooden vintage stand on background of gray wall. Modern room decor. sansevieria plants.
Beautiful donkey tail succulents
string of pearls in the pot, indoor plants, modern minimalist home.

We all know the usual houseplants that are great for decorating your space.

But we don’t often hear about the strange exotic indoor plants that can add some flair to your apartment.

While some of them might need a little more care and attention than others, it can be worth investing into as you watch them grow and bloom.

While some can be a bit on the pricier side, the fun part is that you can always learn to propagate each plant and grow more plants out of them. It can make a great DIY project if you really want to grow more plants to decorate your home.

Now, hear is a great list of some beautiful yet strange indoor houseplants you haven’t heard about (but definitely need to).

Staghorn Fern

Staghorn Fern | Platycerium Bifurcatum

Via Pistils Nursery

You can probably tell where the Staghorn Fern gets it’s name from. It’s leaves are absolutely stunning and it makes for a beautiful indoor plant that you can pot a number of ways to fit your home decor.

To care for this plant, you want to make sure you house it in the brightest spot in your house so it gets filtered indirect light. East and Southern windows tend to work better for this green beauty.

When you water your plant make sure you soak it in water every so often to keep it hydrated and thriving.

Trachyandra

exotic indoor plants, trachyandra

Via Flickr

Thrachyandra’s look like you stuck noodles in a pot and called it a plant, but its a real exotic houseplant that can add some much needed flair to just about any room in your house with the right lighting.

Greenovia Dodrentalis

Rose Shaped Succulents

Via Plantcetera

The Greenovia is part of the succulent family and one of the prettiest of them out there. These rose shaped beautiful indoor plants fall nothing short of exotic and aren’t hard to care for at all.

These plants are pretty straightforward and easy to care for. All you have to do is make sure you leave it in a warm place, that it gets plenty of sunlight, and that you water it when the top soil feels dry? Pretty easy for an exotic indoor plant!

Chinese Money Plant

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, chinese money plant, pilea

The Chinese money plant, sometimes known as Pilea or lefse plant, is a pretty rare find and one plant you don’t see very often.

The leaves have a nice disk shape and its a strong green, which makes it great for home decor.

Chinese money plants prefer bright indirect sunlight and want to dry out some between waterings. Adding too much water to them can make it so their roots rot. So if you own one, you want to make sure you pot it in a planter with drainage holes.

If you’re looking to amp up your home decor, then consider ordering a plant online (it can be hard to find them in local nurseries and are usually shipped from overseas).

Fishbone Cactus

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, chinese money plant, pilea

 

Via Crocus

The Cryptocereus anthonyanus, or fishbone cactus for short, is a weird but completely low key plant that doesn’t take much to keep alive AT ALL. It’s one of the easiest plants to grow and can make a great gateway to owning more indoor plants in the future (not to mention it makes a great home decor plant!).

To care for the plant, you can either place it in direct light or indirect light. In terms of watering it, you want to make sure you give it a general watering every so often, but not obsessively.

One of the reasons why its one of the easiest plants to grow and keep alive is because it can stand some neglect.

Tillandsia

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, tillandsia

Tillandias look like wispy small aloe plants that has leaves that grow in more free shapes. They’ll curl and wave and grow longer over time. To care for this weird plant, you want to make sure you place it in bright light and let it dry out between waterings.

It can be a great plant to grow in small planters and hang on the wall to decorate your home.

Donkey Tail

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, donkey tail

Via Succuterra

Technically, the Donkey Tail plant is a succulent.

It can make a great indoor plant as long as you keep it near a window with plenty of sunlight. This is one hearty plant that can tolerate droughts and long periods of neglect. One thing to note is that if you want to keep the plant growing, you want to make sure you’re transplanting it to bigger planters as they grow.

This way you don’t stunt their growth and they can get as large as they want.

Crassula Umbella ‘Wine Cup’

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, cassum umbellum

Via Reddit

This is one strange plant if you look it’s shape. It’s definitely not one you see in the average household, but can make a great collector’s plant if you’re willing to go out of your way to find it and repot it so it thrives.

The Umbella plant is a genus of the succulent plant, which means it isn’t hard to maintain at all. It doesn’t need much watering but does prefer bright sunlight.

Moon Valley

potted moon valley friendship plant

Via BHG

The Moon plant gets it’s name from the leaves resembling the surface of the moon. Easy, right?

You know what else is easy, taking care of this weird plant! All you have to do is make sure you water it about once a week and make sure its getting moderate indoor sun. Because it is so easy to grow and propagate, it’s an indoor favorite that doesn’t need much attention.

String of Pearlsstring of pearls weird indoor plants

The String of Pearls is a type of succulent that loves growing long tendrils of beautiful pearl like leaves. It needs plenty of indirect sunlight to be able to grow successfully.

They make great hanging plants because of how their leaves grow and can definitely add a trendy exotic plant look to your home. You can usually find them at your local nursery but otherwise your best bet is a quick search online.

Calathea Orbifolia

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, Calathea Orbifolia

Via Quiet Corner

The Calatia is a strange looking plant that has beautiful leaves and a nice punch of personality.

One of the great things about this weird plant is that it doesn’t need much light to grow at all. You want to make sure you’re watering it regularly and making sure you’re fertilizing it every so often.

Hoya Obovata

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, hoya obovata

Via Pistils Nursery

This Hoya Obovata is a beautiful plant with quirky white specs in it’s leaves. It resembles the rubber plant easily except for a few differences.

For the most part it loves bright light and doesn’t like to be deprived of well lit and crisp air. It also holds lots of water so you definitely want to make sure you aren’t over watering it.

Lithop

exotic indoor plants, strange plants, lithop, succulent plants

 

Via Ayapl5112

Lithop is weird looking because they tend to look like stones that are growing out of the ground with all kinds of different colors and patterns.

They’re part of the succulent family, so they like the sun. They can also stand outrageously hot temperatures and don’t require much watering. If you want to fill your house with some strange looking plants that are out of the norm, then you should definitely consider getting some lithop plants.

Exotic Indoor Plants Are Beautiful

All of these plants are downright gorgeous. Only because they’re strange looking doesn’t mean they would be great for decorating your home. The only downside of most of these plants is that they can sometimes be hard to find, depending on where you look. One things for sure, exotic indoor plants are right up there with tropical indoor plants in terms of their beauty.

To find beautiful exotic houseplants, you’ll often have to go online to have the plant shipped to you. If you keep them alive and nurture them to the point of flowering it can be absolutely worth it.

Join the conversation! Tell us which plant caught your eye the most below.

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