Indoor Hanging plant- Chenille Plant: Floral formula

The Chenille plant is an attractive ornamental hanging plant, highly admired for its soft, drooping red flower spikes. Its scientific name is *Acalypha hispida*. This plant is shrub-like in nature and can grow to a height of approximately 1 to 2 meters. Its leaves are large, green, oval-shaped, and feature serrated edges. The flowers of the Chenille plant resemble silk threads, hence it is also called “chenille” or “cat tail”. This plant thrives in warm, humid environments with partial sunlight. It is typically planted in gardens, pots, and ornamental settings. This plant grows beautifully if it gets regular water and good soil.

Scientific Name: Acalypha hispida

Some Basic Information about Chenille Plant (Acalypha hispida) - Indoor hanging plant

Habit: Perennial, evergreen shrub or subshrub; usually grown as a trailing or hanging ornamental plant; can reach 1–3 meters in height under suitable conditions

Root: Taproot system with well-developed lateral roots; in potted conditions, roots are fibrous and spreading

Stem: Erect or slightly trailing, branched, cylindrical; green and soft when young, becoming semi-woody with age

Leaf: Alternate, petiolate, simple; ovate to cordate; margin serrate; apex acuminate; surface soft, slightly hairy; bright green with prominent veins

Inflorescence: Long, pendulous catkin-like spikes arising from axils; dense and covered with numerous flowers; often 15–50 cm long

Flower: Bracteate, incomplete, unisexual; plant monoecious (male and female flowers separate but on the same plant); flowers small and inconspicuous, surrounded by showy, hairy bracts giving a “chenille” (fuzzy) appearance; usually bright red

Calyx: Present (especially in female flowers), consisting of small sepals; gamosepalous or slightly free

Corolla: Absent

Androecium: In male flowers, stamens numerous, free; anthers small, dehiscing longitudinally

Gynoecium: In female flowers, ovary superior, tricarpellary, syncarpous; trilocular with one ovule per locule; styles long, branched, and feathery

Fruit: Capsule, small, dehiscent, containing few seeds

Floral Formula:

♂ Br ⊕ K( ) C0 A∞ G0
♀ Br ⊕ K( ) C0 A0 G(3)

Systematic Position:

Division – Angiospermae
Class – Dicotyledonae
Order – Malpighiales
Family – Euphorbiaceae
Genus – Acalypha
Species – hispida