Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Chlorophytum comosum
mala madre, cinta, spider plant
Plants up to 80 cm high. Roots long, many, swollen near the tips. Rhizome small, vertical. Leaves variable, 10-30 cm long, 1-2 cm broad, tapering at the base and apex, soft, usually flat, arranged in a loose rosette. Inflorescence much longer than the leaves, a simple long, lax raceme, sometimes with 1-2 basal ascending branches; often the apical flowers suppressed and the bracts enlarged to form a leafy tuft; scape long, terete, bracteate; sterile bracts narrow lanceolate, 2-4 cm long, acuminate, fertile small, deltoid, subulate; pedicels thin, up to 8 mm in fruit, articulated near the middle. Flowers in small, spiral, bracteate, axillary fascicles (WFO, 2022)
It is used as a medicine, has environmental uses and social uses and for food (POWO, 2022)
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Magnoliophyta
Class
Liliopsida (= Monocotyledoneae)
Order
Asparagales
Family
Anthericaceae
Genus
Chlorophytum
Species
comosum
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Anthericum comosum Thunb.
Origin: Introduced - established
Year of first record: 1991
Mode of introduction: Intentional
Introduction Pathway: Intentional
Subpathway: Agriculture/Horticulture
Introduced status: Human dependent
Invasive status: Unlikely to become invasive
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
Distribution: Its native range is W. Tropical Africa to Cameroon, Ethiopia to S. Africa (POWO, 2022)
- Clavijo, P. Valdebenito, H. & Hurtado, F. (1991) Plantas introducidas en las areas urbanas de las islas Galapagos. Typescript reports in files of Botany Dept.
- Jørgensen, P.M. León-Yánez, S. (eds.) (1999) Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 75. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, 1181 pp.
- Tropicos.org. (2017) Database of Missouri Botanical Garden. Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 06 Oct 2017 <http://www.tropicos.org
- Guézou, A. Trueman, M., Buddenhagen, E., Chamorro, S., Guerrero, A.M., Pozo, P., Atkinson, R. (2010) An extensive Alien Plan Inventory from the Inhabited Areas of Galapagos Plos One/ www.plosone.org. Volume 5/ Issue 4/e10276
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Chlorophytum comosum", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=1424. Accessed 26 April 2025.