When it comes to showy ornamentals, big blooms always seem to get the most love, from peonies and marigolds to roses and chrysanthemums. However, thereâs a lot to be said for plants with showy foliage. For one thing, foliage lasts a lot longer than even the most long-lived flowers, so you can enjoy the color year-round. For another, leaves offer an incredible range of patterns that youâre unlikely to find on even the showiest flowers, from stripes and polka dots to intricate multicolored marbling.
Some of the most striking foliage in the plant kingdom is the deep purple color produced by anthocyanins in the leaves of many tropical plants. These chemicals protect plants from damaging ultraviolet light, as well as herbivory, and range from vivid magenta to a maroon so deep itâs nearly black. Many of these plants are too tender to survive outside of the tropics, but they make great container plants or houseplants.
Below youâll find 19 of the richest, most vibrant purple-leaved houseplants available. From lush, sprawling vines to compact succulents, thereâs a whole universe of houseplants out there that have more color and beauty in a single leaf than many perennials have in a whole seasonâs worth of blooms! Youâll also learn how to keep your purple houseplants happy, how to maximize their color, and why so many plants have purple leaves in the first place. If purple is your color (and letâs be honest, purple is everyoneâs color!), you wonât want to miss these plants!
Key Takeaways
- Most purple foliage is caused by anthocyanins, a family of molecules that serve a few different functions in plants. Their primary function in leaves is to protect the foliage from two main dangers: excessive light and heat, and herbivory (i.e., being eaten). Because they are complementary in color to green leaves, they reflect a great deal of the red light that plants use for photosynthesis, which is useful if the plant is in an exposed location where too much sunlight might damage the chloroplasts. They also âcamouflageâ the plant from herbivores that are attracted to the color green, and can be distasteful as well.
- Since purple leaves are usually produced in response to high light, it stands to reason that most purple plants will be most purple in full sun. This is true for many of the plants on this list, but for some, even the anthocyanins in their leaves wonât provide sufficient protection from direct sunlight. These plants will do best in bright but indirect or filtered light, or with some afternoon shade.
- If you grow lights with your houseplants, keep in mind that the wavelength of light has a big impact on the color of your plants. Higher wavelength light, like ultraviolet and blue light, has higher energy and thus stimulates anthocyanin production more efficiently than lower wavelengths like red or green light. LEDs generally produce the most high-wavelength light.
- Temperature is also important: many plants produce more anthocyanins at low temperatures than at high temperatures. The optimal combination for most purple plants is low temperature and high light.
- That said, purple coloring can sometimes indicate pathology, especially in plants that donât normally have purple coloring. Usually, itâs caused by a lack of phosphorus, and is especially common in tomato plants. Fortunately, this is easily remedied with fertilizer â but if your in-ground plants regularly develop purple spots, you may need to amend your soil.
19 Purple Leaf Indoor Plants for a Touch of Glamour
1. Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyeriana)
Persian shield has been a popular ornamental since the Victorian era, but thereâs nothing old-fashioned about its appeal. In fact, of all the plants on this list, Persian shield might just have the most beautiful foliage. âPurpleâ doesnât even do it justice: the lilac and deep mauve contrasts strikingly with the dark green veins, giving the plant a romantic, nocturnal appearance thatâs eerily beautiful.
Persian shields can be grown outdoors in zones 10 & 11, but theyâre easy to keep as container plants pretty much anywhere! Theyâre easy to care for and donât require much maintenance, needing only a couple of hours of direct sunlight and consistently moist soil (put the plant in a saucer full of rocks and water). If it starts to get too big, you can pinch the offending stems, but most indoor Persian shields donât get very large.
2. Velvet Plant (Gynura aurantiaca)
Velvet plant is native to Java, and its leaves arenât purple, theyâre green (or variegated green and white). However, the foliage is covered in bright purple hairs, giving the plant an incredibly dimensional, two-toned appearance. The foliage is most vibrant when itâs grown in bright but filtered light, and itâs quite low-maintenance if placed in the right spot.
Velvet plants have a tendency to legginess, but spraying them with a growth regulator like Florel will encourage a more compact growth habit. Treatment with a growth regulator has the added benefit of suppressing flowering â which is a good thing, because the flowers have a strong and unpleasant smell. Fortunately, indoor plants rarely bloom anyway â another good reason to keep them out of direct sunlight!
3. Purple Heart (Tradescantia pallida âPurpureaâ)
Purple heart is a tough, succulent groundcover in the same family as inch plants and geo plants (covered elsewhere on this list), and itâs often used in outdoor borders for its attractive deep purple foliage. It also makes a lovely houseplant, cascading over the edges of its container like a purple waterfall. In summer, it also produces small pink flowers that perfectly complement the foliage.
When grown as a houseplant, purple heart likes full sun â and if you like purple foliage, you will too, because plants grown in shade tend to be greener and not as deep purple. Other than this, theyâre extremely low-maintenance. If you find your purple heart is starting to get too big, you can clip the plant without hurting it, but donât just toss out the clipped stems because propagating new plants from cuttings is a breeze!
4. Purple Basil (Ocimum basilicum var. purpurascens)
You might not think of basil as an ornamental plant, but the deep purple leaves of purple basil are so beautiful you might not want to eat them! (You can, by the way: purple basil is prized for its deep, complex flavor, with notes of cinnamon and anise.) Purple basil is actually the same species as ordinary garden basil, and there are several different varieties with purple leaves. The two most popular are Osmin purple, which is the original purple basil, and âPurple ruffles,â which has ruffled and serrated leaves.
Basil is well-known for being one of the easiest garden plants to care for, and purple basil is just as easy to grow as any other variety. Keep your plants in a sunny window and water occasionally, and theyâll reward you by doing double duty: houseplants that taste as good as they look!
5. False Shamrock (Oxalis triangularis)
Oxalis, often collectively referred to as âwood sorrels,â is a genus of flowering plants with distinctive clover-like leaves and diminutive five-petaled flowers. Many species are popular garden plants, but none of them is as eye-catching as that of false shamrock. The giant, purple leaves fold up at night, after being disturbed, and in direct sunlight (the plantâs way of asking for some shade), as do its delicate white-to-purple flowers, which are a whimsical contrast to the gigantic foliage.
South of zone 7, false shamrock makes a lovely outdoor perennial, but it also takes well to containers. An east-facing window with some direct morning sunlight is a perfect spot for this plant, which is fairly hardy and drought-tolerant but will go dormant if too hot or dry. Not to worry: once soil and light conditions are back to optimum, the plant will come back from the roots.
6. Neoregelia, Air Plant (Neoregelia âPurple Passionâ)
Neoregelia is an epiphyte, meaning it grows on other plants (or rocks) rather than in soil. Epiphytic houseplants are often called âair plantsâ because they get all their nutrition from the air and rainwater! Most neoregelias have large, yucca-like leaves that turn red or purple at the base, but the âPurple Passionâ variety is a striking purple and green all over, with a vibrant purple center.
Like most epiphytes, neoregelia does best in bright indirect light and a soil-less medium â but since it doesnât get any nutrients from the soil, any potting mix will work fine. The important thing is to avoid overwatering â and in fact you donât have to water the soil at all! In the wild, these plants use the rainwater in the cup-like center of the plant, so just top up your plant with clean water (rainwater is best) and change it regularly to avoid bacterial growth.
7. Coleus (Coleus spp.)
In most parts of the country, coleus is grown as an annual, because its stunning purple foliage grows extremely quickly, but is quite frost-tender. However, you can grow these plants they way they were meant to grow â as perennials â indoors, in containers, as unique and eye-catching houseplants.
Coleus has been grown for centuries for its vibrantly colored and patterned foliage, and countless varieties in every shade of red, pink, and purple â from monochrome varieties like âAmethystâ and âBlack Beautyâ to the high-contrast greens and violets of âFelixâ and âGiant Fantasy.â Like most plants on this list, coleus develops the richest colors in bright, indirect or filtered light, and is otherwise quite easy to care for.
8. Rex Begonia (Begonia rex-cultorum)
Begonias are well-known for producing incredibly rich, varied colors of foliage that make them look much harder to grow than they really are. Because of their tremendous beauty combined with their ease of growth, theyâre some of the most popular houseplants in the world, and hundreds of unique varieties are available in every shade and pattern. âPurple Specâ and âPurple Rainâ are a couple of the most beautiful purple varieties, but there are many, many more!
Begonias are heat- and humidity-loving plants, so if grown as houseplants make sure their soil stays consistently moist (but not wet!) by placing them in a tray full of small pebbles and water. Bright, indirect light gives the best colors, but too much direct sunlight will scorch their leaves, so if they are by a south- or west-facing window, consider covering with a sheer curtain in the afternoon.
9. Fringe flower (Loropetalum)
Fringe flower is a beautiful evergreen shrub, although âevergreenâ isnât quite the right word for the plum and maroon foliageâŠever-purple, maybe? Whatever you call it, fringe flower makes a lovely container plant, though itâs not often grown as a houseplant because of its light requirements. If you have a big south-facing window, your fringe flower will likely be happy indoors, but you can also keep it outside in spring and summer, bringing it in when temperatures start to drop.
Most fringe flower varieties â and there are a lot of them! â have reddish-to-purple leaves, but a few stand out: âPurple Diamond,â which matches deep purple foliage with bright pink flowers, and âPurple Pixie,â a dwarf âPurple Diamondâ thatâs ideal for containers. Fringe flower, being a full-sun plant, is a bit thirstier than your average houseplant during the growing season, and you may have to water twice a week or more in spring and summer â but when winter rolls around, itâll do fine with weekly watering or less.
10. Woodland Spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides var. purpurea)
Woodland spurge is a paradoxical plant: whereas most ornamentals have green foliage and colorful blooms, all its color is in its leaves, while its flowers are a perfectly ordinary yellow-green. In fact, you might be alarmed to see the flowers, thinking, âdid my spurge just run out of purple?â Donât worry: itâs completely natural! Woodland spurge comes in a wide range of colors (though the flowers are always green); the purpurea variety boasts deep-maroon succulent leaves that donât look much like any other ornamental.
Woodland spurge is one of the comparatively few ornamentals that thrives in dry shade, so itâs often planted under oak trees, where most other plants canât grow. Then again, its striking foliage and shade tolerance also make it a super-low-maintenance houseplant! Pot it in a cactus potting mix, put it in a spot with some morning sun, and enjoy its strikingly colored and textured foliage year-round!
11. Waffle Plant (Strobilanthes alternata)
If youâre the kind of reader who pays attention to scientific names, you probably noticed that the waffle plant is in the same genus as the Persian shield. In fact, there are over 300 species of Strobilanthes, but only a few are cultivated as houseplants. Waffle plant, like Persian shield, has rich lilac foliage with contrasting dark green veins â but unlike Persian shield, it canât really be grown outdoors anywhere in the US, as it will die when temperatures drop below 50° F.
Fortunately, it makes a great houseplant, and bright indirect light will maximize the purple color of the foliage (but direct sunlight can scorch the leaves). Not all waffle plants have the characteristic crinkled foliage, however: the âExoticaâ variety has the waffle-iest leaves (as well as the purple-est). To encourage a bushier, more compact shape, pinch off the stems just above where new leaves emerge: this will cause the plant to focus growth on leaves instead of stems.
12. Purple Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas âSweet Caroline Sweetheart Purpleâ)
An ornamental sweet potato might not sound like the most exciting houseplant in the world, but these attractive vines are much more than a source of edible tubers. Theyâre in the same genus as morning glories (though not related to potatoes), and their foliage is amazingly variable: young leaves are heart-shaped, but they become deeply lobed as they grow, ultimately looking more like dragonflies or ornamental ironwork than leaves!
Sweet potato is often grown as a groundcover because of its tolerance for heat and humidity, but it takes just as well to containers, cascading from its pot like a fountain of foliage! A number of varieties offer striking shades of purple and maroon, from âSweet Caroline Redâ to âSidekick Black,â so dark that it looks â well, black. Because of their large tubers, sweet potatoes are vulnerable to root rot, so make sure your plants are well-drained. Oh, and you can eat those tubers too: try them with some purple basil!
13. Mona Lavender (Plectranthus âMona Lavenderâ)
If all Mona lavender had going for it was its glossy, evergreen foliage and delicate purple sage-like flowers, it would still be worth having around â but look closer at those leaves, and youâll notice that theyâre actually bright purple underneath! The color is caused by fine, velvety hairs, similar to Persian shields â you might call it âbusiness on top, party underneathâ! The profuse lavender-colored flowers perfectly offset the lush green foliage while complementing the âsecretâ purple of the leaves.
Mona lavender isnât actually all that closely related to lavender, but itâs in the same family (the mint family, Lamiaceae). It tolerates full shade, which makes it a great choice for a houseplant, and it has a unique blooming schedule that makes it ideal for indoor gardening: it starts flowering in the fall and can bloom right through to spring, adding some cheer even in the depths of winter.
14. Boat Lily (Tradescantia spathacea)
Boat lily, also called Moses-in-the-cradle, isnât actually a lily: itâs closely related to purple heart (see above), and the green-and-purple variegated foliage will probably remind you of that plant. However, boat lily is a much tidier plant than purple heart, mostly sticking to an upright, clumping rosette of large sword-like leaves.
One thing it definitely shares with purple heart is ease of cultivation: it will grow in just about any soil or light environment (though bright filtered light yields the most colorful foliage) and is exceptionally resistant to pests and disease. If you like a more âoverflowingâ look, try planting it in a hanging planter. If you prefer something more compact, just clip any ârunnersâ that emerge from the central rosette: like purple heart, theyâre easy to propagate.
15. (Echeveria âPurple Pearlâ)
Echeverias are some of the most popular succulent houseplants â admittedly, thatâs probably partly because they donât have spines or thorns like 90% of succulents, but their fleshy leaves are still unique and quite beautiful. Theyâre sometimes called âdesert rosesâ because of their flower-like appearance, and range from the tiny âhens and chicksâ varieties to real monsters a foot in diameter and height!
âPurple Pearlâ echeveria is definitely in the latter category, and in addition to being big itâs also a vibrant purple that really stands out. Like many succulents, it doesnât do well in low light: itâll survive, but the foliage wonât be as vibrant. In full sun, it will not only produce the most richly colored leaves, but if youâre lucky, flowers as well! Echeveriaâs flowers arenât the showiest, but theyâre quite striking, emerging from the center of the rosette on spindly spikes, almost like coral bells (Heuchera).
16. Caladium, Angelâs Wings (Caladium bicolor âVa Va Violetâ)
Whether you call it angelâs wings, elephantâs ears, or heart of Jesus, caladium is a real show-stopper of an ornamental. Its foliage is spectacular, coming in mottled shades of green, red, pink, white, and even polka-dotted. Perhaps the most beautiful of all, though, is the âVa Va Violet,â which boasts huge pink-and-purple leaves edged in dark green.
Caladiums are grown from bulbs (technically tubers), just like lilies and irises, and in fact theyâre in the same family as calla lilies. They grow equally well in shaded gardens and indoors: bright morning light with afternoon shade gives the best foliage colors, and regular watering will keep those leaves standing tall. Whether in-ground or in pots, these are some truly âangelicâ ornamentals!
17. Calathea (Goeppertia roseopicta âDottieâ)
If you prefer your purple foliage subtle and tasteful, calathea âDottieâ may be just what youâre looking for. Calatheas are known for their intriguing foliage, and âDottieâ is no exception: the large, glossy leaves are dark green, similar to a rubber plant, but with a twist: two loud pink or purple stripes running right down the middle of each leaf. Somehow the effect is even more striking than an all-purple plant, and looks even more unreal.
One challenge of growing calatheas is making sure they get enough water (they need to be misted daily to stay humid), but not so much that the leaves turn yellow and drop off. Find a location with good light, then experiment a little with watering: a short dry spell wonât hurt the plant, and will give you an idea of how frequently it needs to be watered. Once youâve got that figured out, itâs a very low-maintenance plant!
18. Stonecrop (Sedum âPurple Emperorâ)
Stonecrops are part of an extraordinarily diverse genus of over 400 succulent, creeping plants, mostly native to North and South America. Gardeners love them both for their hardiness and their aesthetic appeal, but a number of varieties make great indoor plants as well. The âPurple Emperorâ hybrid stonecrop is one of the taller varieties, reaching a foot tall or more and spreading slowly from a central clump. Its succulent, dusky purple foliage is complemented by large clusters of pink flowers that last for months in late summer!
âPurple Emperorâ (and stonecrops in general) does best in bright, filtered light, though direct sunlight is fine too. Too much shade will cause the plant to etiolate, or grow long, floppy stems in an attempt to reach sunlight â not attractive! More sun will also lead to more flowers and richer foliage. Like a lot of ornamental succulents, itâs quite tolerant of dry and/or infertile soil (in fact, overly fertile soil can lead to the same problems as shade), and would make a great addition to a miniature rock garden.
19. Ti Plant (Cordyline fruticosa)
Ti plant might be best known as the source of leaves for traditional Hawaiian âgrassâ skirts (itâs actually in the asparagus family), but itâs also an attractive, low-maintenance houseplant that boasts deep green foliage tinged with pinks, reds, and purples. The âSoledad Purpleâ and âPurple Princeâ cultivars both feature vivid magenta leaves that fade to a variegated purple and green as they age; like many plants on this list, bright filtered light will yield the best colors.
Ti plant is often confused with dracaena, which isnât that much of a problem since they have similar care requirements. It needs consistent soil humidity, which is easy to achieve with a saucer filled with rocks and water; otherwise, you only need to water it when the top of the soil dries out. Like some other houseplants, this plant is sensitive to fluoride, so if your tap water is fluoridated you may want to water it with distilled water instead.
19 Gorgeous Purple Leaf Houseplants Featuring Stunning Foliage
Purple foliage can give a plant a striking and even somewhat unreal appearance â but itâs actually not that uncommon in the plant kingdom. The plants above are just a few of the many houseplants that boast vibrant violet leaves! These plants are great because their color gives you a hint on their care: purple leaves means bright, indirect light. Give these plants plenty of light and a little care and theyâll impress for years to come!
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