This Plant’s Flowers Look Like Tiny Fish, or Goldfish Crackers

published Apr 11, 2020
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Just like all dogs are good dogs, all plants are beautiful, air-cleaning wonders. But we have a special place in our hearts for the strange plants that resemble animals, such as the rabbit succulents, which look just like tiny plush bunnies, or the dolphin succulents, which look like green dolphins leaping over a sea of potting soil.

Allow us to introduce you to the goldfish plant, whose yellow-orange blossoms look like goldfish (and sometimes like their namesake crackers).

Officially named Columnea gloriosa, goldfish plants are related to African violets. They like bright, indirect light and moist soil, according to The Spruce. As their stems mature, they begin to cascade, making them well suited to hanging baskets.

“They are profuse bloomers when cared for and add splashes of color,” writes The Spruce. “They are relatively long-lived plants, surviving almost a decade, providing you repot them when necessary (but not too often!) and keep them away from air that is too dry or cold.

If you’d like to try caring for a goldfish plant of your own, Etsy shop 9EzTropical sells a four-inch-tall Columnea gloriosa and a foot-tall version of a different goldfish plant called the Nematanthus. Both species are part of the Gesneriaceae, or African violet, family.

In customers’ photos, the plants look adorable and happy in their homes.

That hashtag is right — plants do make people happy.