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The ZZ Plant is a famously tolerant plant, known for its ability to grow in the worst conditions. It can survive low light conditions, dry air, and dry soil. It is an incredibly popular plant because of how well it can survive neglect. If placed in, say, a windowless office, it will not complain. It will not mind that the buzzing overhead fluorescent lights are the only light it ever sees. It does not need to see the sunlight. If forgotten about, it can survive alone for months without any water at all. It will do just fine if it, say, didn’t interact with anyone for weeks on end. It does not need much, if anything, please don’t worry about it, please, it really doesn’t need anything. If you were to offer it a glass of water, it would say No really, it’s okay, I’m fine without any, I don’t want to bother you to get anything for me. Truly, it’s totally fine, it promises.
The ZZ Plant will not grow much, if at all, under these conditions of neglect, but it will stay alive, its leaves remaining green and waxy, the neglect not showing anywhere on its surface. And if it’s mistaken for a fake plant, as it often is, then that mischaracterization is taken with pride. To stay alive while being thought of as something that does not show any signs of life means it is doing something right — it means it is not taking up any space. The ZZ Plant does not want to burden you with any of its needs, and so it has learned not to have any needs to burden you with. In exchange, it will stay the exact same as when you first met it, never growing, proud of the fact that it would never burden you with having to adapt to any of its change. The ZZ Plant wears its ability to survive in the poorest conditions proudly, like a badge of honor: I can survive an impossible amount of neglect, and that makes me worth keeping around.
We placed our ZZ Plant a few feet away from the big window in our bathroom, where it gets plenty of bright, indirect natural sunlight, and where it can see the sky every day, which is what we learned it prefers over low light conditions. We chose the bathroom because the humidity from the shower creates more humidity for the ZZ Plant, which is what it prefers to dry air. It is not the only plant in the bathroom — in the shower, a humidity-loving English Ivy fills its ledge, happily growing and filling its corner. And we chose the bathroom because this way, we will see our ZZ Plant every day and carefully monitor its soil, watering it as soon as its soil has dried all the way through, which is its ideal watering rhythm as well.
As a result, our ZZ Plant has grown immensely, every couple of weeks sprouting a bright, lime green stalk of leaves which shoots up and unfurls, each new stalk taller than the stalks that it had grown before. Our ZZ Plant has, perhaps, doubled in size since we recently got it a few months ago, and shows no signs of slowing down. It turns out, it grows unapologetically in conditions where its ability to be healthy is encouraged.
As it turns out, the ZZ Plant can withstand an impossible amount of neglect, but that does not mean that under better conditions, it will not choose to take up the potential offered to it and thrive.
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From quietly provocative international best selling author and TV writer Jonny Sun, A small list of knowable things is a weekly illustration and reflection on a personal object close to his heart. If you haven't already, you can subscribe here.
ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia)
