I am looking for a plant that needs no natural light

I want to have a houseplant on an acccent table in my bedroom, but it will not receive any natural light. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am not going to be particular about flowering or not.

Thanks, Jennifer

Since plants by nature live "outdoors," that is going to be a hard bill to fill unless maybe it's mushrooms. Is a light going to be on in the bedroom 12 hours a day or more? There are no windows that might let in a little natural light?

There is a window, but it has heavy curtains since I work days/nights. I guess it will get a small amount of filtered light, or could take it on a trip to the bathroom occasionally.

You'd need to have some sort of growlamp, no plant can live without light.

African Violets can live happily under an ordinary table lamp.

I have a similar situation, and came up with a solution. I bought two identical plants of pothos. One is kept in the "dark" location for a week, while the other gets bright light for a week in a spare room's east window. Every weekend, I switch them. Works great, and both plants are just fine.

Ooooh, Hoosier, thats a great idea! Twins ;)

I guess the perfect plant that needs no light would be an artificial one : )

Jennifer

I have seen the ZZ plant (discussed in another thread here) growing for years in dim places.

Now that I think about it, spathiphyllum (Peace Lily) or agleonema (Chinese evergreen) probably can live with less light than almost any other plants.

Peace Lilies and Chinese Evergreens may survive for a time in low light but they are more for medium. They will not be happy for long. Cast Iron plant / Aspidistra Elatior is supposed to be able to take a lot of abuse as far as lighting, and ZZ's as mentioned by JuneyBug.
HoosierGreen really has the solution with twin plants. Pothos or any low light hardy plant. You could even do two diff. types and have a little variety!

I am glad I read that because my bedroom is also very dark, in fact it sounds like yours. Maybe I could try that! Yay! Thank you HoosierGreen!

I do wish there was a plant that didn't need light. Maybe there are cave plants? LOL! My bathroom would look great with a plant but it has no windows at all, darn it!

I solved that problem in my bathroom by replacing the fluorescents(sp) with grow lights!!

I have thought about that...believe me! But don't you need to leave the light on all day then? I can't decide if I want to do that.

Well, I leave that light on all day anyways, it's a well used bathroom and I figure leaving it on is better than flicking it on and off every 5 minutes...

True!

Sanseveria (snake plant) will stay looking nice for a long time in the dark.Keep it on the dry side.

ZZ plants are amazing. Pot one up in a bulb pan so it dries out thoroughly and I bet it grows. Mine sits in a bedroom with the shade down on the only window and it is beautiful.

There are a lot of plants which will grow in water without much light, too. Someone mentioned pothos and also syngonium (arrowhead plant) will grow in water alone and be beautiful.

Wouldn't a lamp with a florescent bulb also work for most plants?

yes,,,,,,,,,,,,really well..........

I have 3 reading lamps that have flor. lights and plants under them. Due to privacy issues, the blinds in those rooms are rarely opened. The plants look great! Including a blooming African Violet.

So glad to have stumbled on this question. Beleive it or not, my friend and I just asking the same question over the weekend. The only thing I could come up with at the time as ZZ's. I have had to rearrange furniture in a spare room to make room for crib, etc. Very little natural light. Seems like I have been pinched to babysit new grandchild this summer.

Great information, thanks.

hi
i would try
mother-in-law plant
i do not know the other name
but they grow good any where
elle

Mother In Law / Snake Plant / Sensiveria :)
Also Cast Iron Plant / Aspidistra Elatior as well.
Depending on HOW low your light is and how often you have lights on, since you have a window, Dracaena's will take low light as well.

I chose a Spilanthes(sp?). The room has a window that is about 15' away from where the plant is, but the window has fairl heavy curtains and gets barely any light. So far so good though. If it starts to look like it needs more, I can send it to the bathroom for a few days.

Heart-leaf philodendrons are good shade plants, too.

Why not just settle for artificial greenery. They make them now so that it is hard to tell if it is real or not. Hobby Lobby have a great selection of them.

jlp222,
All of the plants mentioned above are considered "low light" plants. If you really do want live plants get two or maybe three of the above and rotate them.
If all else fails there are still two options, Genus Plasticus or Genus Silkis. :-))
barb