Tree philodendron (Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum) care

Aroids · easy to keep

Last updated 29 October 2026

Still sold as Philodendron selloum, and still called a tree philodendron, though botanists moved it to Thaumatophyllum in 2018. It is a self-heading plant rather than a vine: a thick woody trunk with a crown of deeply cut leaves, spreading wider than it is tall. It needs floor space more than it needs anything else.

Quick facts

Water

Water weekly. Water when the top third of the pot is dry. Philodendrons wilt visibly when genuinely thirsty and recover within hours, which makes them easy to read.

Light

Bright indirect to a couple of hours of direct sun.

Humidity

Fine at room humidity, faster growth above 60%.

Soil

Loose, airy aroid mix with plenty of bark and perlite.

Feeding

Balanced liquid feed at half strength every third watering through the growing season.

Repotting

Repot every 1.5 years.

Toxic to pets

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life. The ASPCA's plant list does not include Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum (checked 26 October 2026).

Difficulty

Easy.

Mature size

1.5 m tall, 2 m wide.

Native to

South America.

Watering a Tree philodendron

Water weekly. Water when the top third of the pot is dry. Philodendrons wilt visibly when genuinely thirsty and recover within hours, which makes them easy to read.

That cadence is the one PlantParlour sets for this species when you name it, and it is deliberately on the cautious side — a plant that asks a day early is safer than one that asks a day late. Log each watering and the reminder moves with the plant rather than with the calendar.

Light

Brighter than most philodendrons: this is a self-heading plant from open forest edges, and it will take morning sun happily. In dim light the leaf stalks stretch out until the plant flops.

Humidity and temperature

Fine at room humidity, faster growth above 60%. Central heating in winter is what turns a comfortable room into a dry one, and it is the usual reason an established plant suddenly browns at the edges or picks up spider mites.

Soil and potting

Almost all of them climb or creep rather than sit in deep soil, so the roots want air. Half potting compost, half bark and perlite is the standard recipe. Crawlers like gloriosum want a shallow wide pot rather than a deep one — the rhizome runs along the surface.

Feeding

Balanced liquid feed at half strength every third watering through the growing season. Stop feeding in autumn and start again when you see new growth in spring — feeding a plant that isn't growing just builds up salts in the pot.

Repotting

Repot every 1.5 years. Repot every second spring. It builds a thick woody trunk over time and gets heavy — a wide, weighted pot stops it tipping.

Common problems

• Long bare stems with leaves far apart

  Too little light. The plant is reaching.

  Fix: Move it brighter and cut the leggy growth back — it will branch from the nodes below the cut.

  Leggy, stretched growth: how to read it on any plant

• Yellow lower leaves

  Usually overwatering; occasionally just age, one leaf at a time.

  Fix: If several go at once, check the roots. Brown and soft means rot; trim them and repot into fresh airy mix.

  Yellow leaves: how to read it on any plant

• Variegation fading back to plain green

  Not enough light for the plant to afford the white tissue.

  Fix: Give it more light, and prune back to a node that still shows variegation — the plant grows on from the last variegated point.

  Variegation fading: how to read it on any plant

• Brown tips on new leaves that were fine in the old pot

  Low humidity while the leaf was still unfurling.

  Fix: Group plants together or run a humidifier while new leaves open; the damage is cosmetic and permanent on that leaf.

  Brown tips and edges: how to read it on any plant

Propagation

Stem cuttings root readily: take a section with at least one node and a leaf, and put it in water, perlite or damp sphagnum. Crawling species are divided instead, by cutting the rhizome between two growth points.

A cutting taken in PlantParlour keeps its link to the plant it came from, so a propagation years later still traces back to the mother plant — which is the point if you ever sell or trade it.

Toxicity and safety

Toxic to cats, dogs and people if chewed — the sap carries insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, which burn the mouth and throat. Keep it off the floor if anything in the house tastes its way through life.

The ASPCA's plant list does not include Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum (checked 26 October 2026).

Every houseplant in the library the ASPCA lists as non-toxic to cats and dogs

Named cultivars and variegations

Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum is sold under several cultivar names. Care is the same unless noted; variegated forms carry less chlorophyll, so they grow more slowly and want more light than the plain species.

Questions people ask

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