cast-iron plant

Also known as Bar-room Plant, Iron Plant, Haran, Baran

Cast-iron plants earned their durable moniker by enduring extreme neglect, low light, and poor air quality inside Victorian parlors where little other greenery could survive. Dark green, leathery leaves rise directly from creeping rhizomes to form elegant, arching clumps that withstand winter temperatures as low as minus fifteen degrees Celsius. In early spring, unusual purplish star-shaped flowers bloom almost unseen right at the soil surface, pollinated primarily by tiny soil-dwelling invertebrates.