Sia

Clusia Princess

• 
  Easy care
• 
  Most light conditions

• Sia likes...
  • 
    Light watering

    She likes a drink when her top two inches of soil are dry, but she’s tough and forgives irregular watering.

  • 
    Most light conditions

    She’ll be ok in anything from light shade to full sun. Her absolute ideal, if possible, is a lovely bright room.

  • 
    Humidity

    If you can put her somewhere natural steamy, e.g. a bathroom, or regularly mist her leaves, she’ll thrive.

• Quick facts

  Botanical name

  Clusia rosea

  Nickname

  Clusia princess; autograph tree; Copey; balsam apple; pitch apple; Scotch attorney

  Air purifying

  Yes

  Plant height (including pot)

  20-30cm

  Pet/child safe

  Mildly toxic if eaten

  Nursery pot size

  12cm

• About clusia princess

  Left to its own devices, clusia princess, or clusia rosea, can reach heights of 6 metres. In places like the Bahamas, Cuba and Puerto Rico, you’d see it growing happily outside.

  Its method of growing in the wild is very unusual and a tiny bit gruesome. It’s a hemiepiphyte, which means it starts its life growing on another tree. As it increases in size, it sends out more and more roots, which gradually wrap around its host and strangle it. Eventually it roots itself in the ground, standing over the corpse of its host tree.

  It won’t strangle anybody as an indoor tree. It’s low-key and low-effort. It copes with most conditions, grows quickly and looks simple and sculptural. It will also love you if you give it a feed withliquid fertiliseronce a month in spring and summer.

  Did you know?

  Its nickname is autograph tree because it’s leaves are so thick it’s said you could carve your name in them.