Are lipstick plants safe for cats and dogs?
Aeschynanthus radicans · Flowering houseplant
Non-toxic to cats and dogs
Confirmed at genus level for Aeschynanthus. Very little that flowers and trails comes back clear, which is what makes this one useful in a house with animals.
Source: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants, at genus level.
Yes, flowers and all. Aeschynanthus radicans appears on the ASPCA's non-toxic list for cats and dogs, which puts it in a small group of flowering trailers you can hang without checking anything else first. Most of what is sold as a flowering houseplant does not manage that: the catalogue records gardenia and rex begonia as toxic at mild severity, and cyclamen and florist azalea as severe for both cats and dogs. A lipstick plant flowers in a bright room and drops its blooms on the carpet, and that is the extent of it.
Worth knowing anyway
Non-toxic covers the leaves, the tubular flowers and the dark cups they push out of, so a bloom on the floor is nothing to chase across the room. Quantity is still quantity: a stomach packed with any greenery can come back up, and a pet that keeps being sick needs a vet call rather than another day of watching. Nothing on this plant is spiny or milky, so cuttings need no special handling.
Living with one
This is the hanging plant for a bright bathroom or a kitchen window, where a cat can sit underneath it without anyone thinking about it. It stands in for the trailing aroids people give up on, and the catalogue records golden pothos and heartleaf philodendron as toxic at moderate severity for cats and dogs. The difference you feel is thirst: it is scheduled around every six days, against ten for a hoya.
How to care for lipstick plant
The starting schedule and conditions Kounts Care sets up for this species. Watering adapts from there based on the daylight where you live.
- Water
- About every 6 days, less in winter
- Light
- Bright, indirect
- Humidity
- 50% to 70%
- Temperature
- 18C to 27C
- Soil pH
- 6 to 7
- Family
- Flowering houseplant
Let the app remember this for you
Kounts Care holds your plants and your pets in one household, so it checks every new plant against the cats and dogs you actually own, names them in the warning, and runs the check again over your existing plants the day a new animal arrives. Toxicity warnings are free at every tier.
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Questions people actually ask
Are all lipstick plant varieties safe for cats?
The ASPCA entry covers Aeschynanthus radicans, which is what almost everything labelled lipstick plant turns out to be. The named forms on shop labels are usually selections of that species rather than different plants, though a few trade names cover other Aeschynanthus species entirely, and those are recorded as unlisted, meaning the list does not cover them rather than that they are dangerous.
Why do the buds fall off before they open?
Dry roots, usually, or a sudden change of position. A plant that is setting flower and then dries out will drop the lot, and the catalogue asks for humidity between 50 and 70 per cent, which a centrally heated living room in winter does not provide. They also bloom better slightly pot-bound, so moving one into a generous pot often buys leaves at the cost of flowers.
What can I hang instead of a pothos?
A lipstick plant, a hoya, a spider plant, string of turtles or a Boston fern, all of which the catalogue records as non-toxic to cats and dogs. The ones to leave in the shop are the pothos varieties and heartleaf philodendron, both toxic at moderate severity, and string of pearls, also moderate. Height is no defence against a determined cat, so changing the plant works better than changing the shelf.
Does the app just remind me every six days?
It starts from the catalogue interval and then adjusts. The schedule moves with the daylight where you live, so a plant on a six day cycle in July stretches out by December, and it responds to what you actually log rather than assuming you watered when told. If you go away, a sitter can be handed a link showing what is due while you are gone.