Dieffenbachia, famous as Dumb Cane and leopard lily, guarantees a tropical environment indoors and flourishes itself to give a new flower every year.
Though Dieffenbachia is majorly famous for dark green leaves with white spotting, its flower also appears to add aesthetics.
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What does Dieffenbachia Flower Look Like?
The flower of Dieffenbachia resembles a Jack inside the Pulpit with no fragrance.
Satisfy your queries regarding the entire Dieffenbachia flower!
| Indicator | Identity |
|---|---|
| Botanical Name | Dieffenbachia spp. |
| Common Name | Dumb cane, Leopard Lily |
| Inflorescence | Spadix, with upright axis containing the male and female flowers enclosed inside a spathe |
| Size | 5 inches long |
| Color | Dull, creamy, white with light green spathe around it |
| Blooming Season | Spring and summer |
| Fragrance | Depends upon variety as some has no fragrance at all while some radiates earthy musk aroma. |
| Lifespan | About 48 hours |
| Toxicity | Toxic to pets and humans |
If you wish to colonize a little space with Dieffenbachia, try 15 types.
How Often does a Dieffenbachia Flower?
Dieffenbachia bloom is rare to enjoy indoors but is not impossible.
They produce flowers as often as once every year and rarely once in 36 years indoors.
However, the flowering period may differ due to pollination.
Dieffenbachia shows reproductive phenomena and flower structure similar to Philodendron and Anglomania, blooming during spring and summer.
Moreover, the flowers stay alive for a short period, a day or two, and close back into their spathe.
Dieffenbachia Flower Pollination
Although they are unisexual, self-pollination is impossible as they have separate maturation times.
According to Agriculture Research Center, the pollen gets viable 2-3 days after the spathe opens.
The female flowers enter the receptive phase as soon as the spathe unfurls.
Alternatively, beetles also act as pollinators to transfer the pollens to females, but the success rate is low except for Dieffenbachia longispatha.
Steps to Hand-Pollinate Dieffenbachia
Follow the steps to perform cross-pollination in Dieffenbachia.
- Use a camel brush to rub over the sticky surface of the female stigma.
- After wetting the tip of the brush with the sticky part, run it over the pollen and attach it to the brush surface.
- Lastly, rub back the brush over the female flowers to ensure successful pollination.
However, instant transfer of pollen might not be possible, so better collect the viable, mature pollens in a Petri dish.
And put the dish along with pollen over a wet paper towel. Wrap it tight inside a plastic zipper bag.
Lastly, keep the pollen inside a high-humidity area as in the refrigerator and store the pollen for at least 2 to 3 days.
How to Make Dieffenbachia Flower
If your Dieffenbachia is not flowering, the major culprit can be the low humidity level and lack of bright light.
The Dieffenbachia foliage starts to turn yellow and wrinkly below 60% humidity in the air, shifting the entire focus of the plant to repairing instead of blooming.
To maintain the humidity around your newly pollinated Dieffenbachia, install humidifiers.
You can also place the pots in the kitchen and bathroom but remember to check the light intensity.
Dieffenbachia thrives well under bright indirect light for at least 6 hours.
So, try to put the plant Dieffenbachia in the South and the West facing window and put on curtains if the light intensity is bright.
You can also install grow lights to maintain the light intensity.
Besides, you can expect blooming from the old Dieffenbachias, which usually completes their flowering in 4 to 5 months, giving berry-like fruits at the end of the season.
However, to secure the blooming, you might need to boost the Dieffenbachia with enhancers like fertilizers and blooming hormones.
Feed your Dieffenbachia diluted balanced fertilizers (20-20-20) once every four weeks.
For the best result, give Dieffenbachia a foliar spray of 250 to 1000ppm of Gibberellic acid (GA3).
If you can maintain the temperature and soil pH within 60ºF – 75ºF and 6-7.5 simultaneously, you will have a higher chance of securing blooming.
Wrapping Up!
Dieffenbachia is gifted with more than 50 species under it, including ‘Seguine,’ ‘Camilla,’ ‘Amoena,’ and ‘Tropic Snow,’ having similar structures, flowers and the same pattern of blooming.
But be aware not to touch the flowers or other plant parts with bare hands as they are poisonous to both pets and humans.
There are also flowers that resemble the Dieffenbachia Flower, such as ZZ Plant Flower, Red Aglaonema flower, Elephant Ear flower and Philodendron flower.
