Shrimp Plant

Owner: Holly Dz
Aug 19
3 min read

Corresponding Blog for Podcast Episode #118

Shrimp Plants are impressive flowering plants that are very underrated. With their unique blooms and lush green foliage, these plants are typically found in various forms and size!

Family Name: Acanthaceae (A CAN THEE AI)

Latin Name: Justicia brandegeana, Justicia lutea(JUST EEK A) (BRAND E GIANA) (LOOT E A)

According to University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture "The genus Justicia was named by Linnaeus to honor James Justice, a Scottish gardener who authored the British Gardener’s Dictionary, first published in 1754. The species name honors Townsend S. Brandegee (1834 – 1925), a surveyor, botanist and plant collector who became an expert of the flora of the Baja region of Mexico."

Common Names: Golden Candle, Lollypop Plant

Natively, these plants can grow up to 6' tall and bloom all year. As a houseplant, these stay much smaller (2-3' tall) and mostly bloom during the summer months only.

The blooms usually are a 4-sided, conical shaped overlapping bracts with small flowers poking out of the bracts. The small flower shape is what gives the plant its name since they do look like shrimp! The pinkish varieites of bracts could almost look like a lobster tail in the way they look and bend slightly

Justicia brandegeana: pinkish red bracts
Justicia lutea: golden bracts

Sun Requirements:

Shrimp plants need to be in as bright as light as possible. Direct light or bright, indirect light would be the only light they can thrive and survive in.

That being said, if you are growing this outdoors and you are within their hardiness zone (9-11) they can do medium or filtered light which can help with drying out the plant too fast.

If you need any guidance to understanding light, or are in need of a grow light to help increase your light, check out the links!

Water Requirement

These need to be in medium moisture during the spring and summer months and kept consistently moist. You can cut back on watering during the winter months and allow the soil to mostly dry between watering.

Shrimp plants do not need to have extra humidity in order the grow well but a little humidity does not hurt!

Fertilizer

Fertilizing is an essential part of keeping Shrimp Plants blooming prolifically. Using a bloom-focused fertilizer is recommended to keep your plant having consistent beautiful flowers. Make sure you buy a fertilizer with a high middle number in the NPK ratio which is meant to promote flowering.

If you need help understanding fertilizer a bit more, check out Podcast Episode 103 or the Fertilizer Explains blog post.

Other Facts

Shrimp Plants are native to Mexico, Central and South America
These need to stay in temperatures that are above 60 degrees otherwise you may start to notice the plant dropping its leaves.
I have experienced spider mites on Shrimp Plants before so keep an eye on your plant and take preventative measures.
Pruning this plant is helpful to keep it shape from getting too leggy.
Deadheading after blooms are spent also help the plant to continue reblooming.
Hardiness zone 8-11
Attracts hummingbirds & butterflies
You can propagate with stem cuttings on non flowering stems
Based on the evidence I found, these are considered non-toxic. The reliable sources do not have the Shrimp Plant listed so I would recommend keeping this away from pets just in case. If you are interested in learning about more pet friendly plants, check out Podcast Ep#31 for more info or the corresponding blog post!

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Always written with extreme plant passion!

Love, Holly (Owner & Creator of Houseplant Homebody LLC)