Why is my variegated plant turning green?

A PlantParlour plant problems guide

White, cream, pink or silver parts of a leaf have little or no chlorophyll, so they cost the plant energy it can only afford in good light. In too little light a variegated plant makes greener leaves, and in many plants an all-green shoot grows faster than the variegated ones and takes over. Move it brighter — bright indirect light, not scorching sun — and cut any all-green stems back to the last well-marked leaf. A leaf that has come out green stays green: recovery shows in the new growth. Some plants lose their markings as they mature, and that is normal.

Read the pattern first

Whole stems coming out plain green
Reversion. Cut them out at their base or back to a variegated leaf, or they will outgrow the rest.
New leaves less marked than the old ones
Too little light. Move it brighter.
Pink or red fading to green on a pink-leaved variety
Too little light — the colour needs it.
Silver fading as a climbing plant gets bigger
Often maturity, not a problem: some species lose their juvenile silver as they grow up.
White parts going brown and crispy
The white tissue is fragile. Dry air or strong sun, not a lack of light.

How to prune a reverting plant

Follow the green stem back to where it grew from and cut it off just above the last leaf that still has good variegation, or at its base if it comes from the soil. The plant grows on from the node below the cut, and that node carries the pattern of the leaf it belongs to. Keep checking: a plant that has reverted once tends to try again.

Plant by plant

Where this is a known problem on 29 of the plants in the PlantParlour care library, with that plant's own cause and fix. Entries shared by a whole genus are listed once.

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.
Colour washing out of a pink or red variety
Not enough light.

Fix: Move it brighter, out of direct sun.
Variegation disappearing, new leaves plain green
Not enough light.

Fix: Move it brighter. Cut back to the last well-marked leaf; all-green growth will otherwise take over, because it grows faster.
Stripes fading to green
Not enough light.

Fix: Move it brighter and cut out any wholly green stems — they outgrow the variegated ones.
Colour fading
Not enough light.

Fix: Move it brighter.
- Ti plant
New leaves plain green
Not enough light.

Fix: Move it into the brightest spot you have.
- Croton
The silver is fading as it grows
Nothing wrong — this is the plant maturing.

Fix: Silver is a juvenile trait. A siltepecana that is greening up and enlarging is doing exactly what it should.
- Silver monstera
Variegated ivy turning plain green
Too little light.

Fix: Move it brighter and remove all-green shoots.
- English ivy

Questions people ask

Can a reverted plant get its variegation back?

The green leaves won't change. The plant can go back to variegated growth if you cut it back to a node that still has the pattern and give it more light.

Is more sun better for variegation?

More light, yes; midday sun, no. White and cream tissue scorches more easily than green, so bright indirect light is the target.

Not sure which one it is?

PlantParlour's health check looks at up to three photos of your plant alongside the care you've logged for it — when you last watered, when it was repotted, problems it has had before — and tells you what it sees. Log the problem as an issue, take another photo in a few days, and the next check compares the two, so you can tell whether it is spreading or settling. It is an AI's considered guess, not a diagnosis, and it is free to start with no account.

Open PlantParlour

General guidance for houseplants, written to be careful rather than clever. It can't see your plant, so treat it as a starting point, not a diagnosis. See our terms.