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If you’re after a Monstera-esque plant that’s a bit smaller, with bigger fenestrations, and that’s silver then I have the plant for you!
Amydrium Medium are found in south-east Asia - Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, and some Indonesian islands. I'm not sure how widely distributed the silver ones are, but they're definitely found in Borneo.
Medium is the species (I’d love to hear the story behind that), Amydrium is the genus, and they’re in the Aroid family.
(I have a whole article on plants that look like Monstera here)
I LOVE Amydrium Medium. I actually prefer the green ones, but they don’t crop up in my local garden centre very often, but when I saw this one in the Sad Plant Pile for £9.99 it seemed silly to leave it.
Are Amydrium Medium Silver easy to care for?
I feel like I should do some sort of infographic with a scale as to how easy plants are to care for depending on your conditions.
Amydrium Medium Silver is pretty easy to care for.
Very similar to easy-care Philodendron and Monstera. They have a couple of requirements that you must fulfil if you want it to grow actual leaves rather than runners.
The first one is, as is usually the case when it comes to plants that love to run, light. The second is that they really, really need to be on a moss pole to grow well.
Amydrium medium silver are well known for being INCREDIBLY slow to grow.
That isn’t something that I’ve noticed, tbh.
It just grows at a normal rate and definitely faster than other plants I have.
I perhaps just have one with a big root system and only a few leaves, in which case it’ll probs slow the growth once they’re more evenly matched.
Amydrium Medium Silver light requirements
I keep my Amydrium Medium Silver about four feet from a large south-facing window. There are other plants between it and the window, so I suppose it’s bright, dappled light.
When I bought it, it had quite a long runner, but since I brought it home, it’s started growing leaves along it.
That is one thing with Amydrium Medium Silver – they are MORE than happy to be putting out a lot of growth at once.
If you don’t put yours in a bright enough spot, you’ll end up with a lot of runners and no leaves. Grow lights are fine. They have pale leaves which would suggest they burn easily BUT they’re quite thick so they’d do fine under a grow light if they’re acclimated properly.
Amydrium Medium Silver water requirements
I’ve watered mine whenever it hit a 2 on the moisture meter (pretty much weekly, but it’s growing a lot). It’s been perfectly happy with tap water, and I haven’t noticed any browning on the leaves.
Amydrium Medium Silver humidity requirements
The ambient humidity in my living is anywhere from 50% to 65% and it’s doing really well. I’m sure it would do even better in higher humidity, but it doesn’t seem to need any more humidity to grow really well (and quickly).
The thick leaves actually suggest that it would be ok in 40% humidity, BUT that propensity to shoot out runners rather than leaves may strike again.
I have noticed that the leaves unfurl in a really bizarre way – they can be really twisted in on themselves so I imagine in low humidity this could be even worse.
Amydrium Medium Silver fertiliser requirements
I’ve been fertilising my plants pretty frequently this summer – at least every other time I water (so on average once a fortnight) and it’s been really enjoying it.
Some of my plants seem to be over-fertilised - a few stopped growing so I laid off fertilising those ones and they've resumed growing so I concluded over-fertilising was the issue.
I’ve been using the General Hydroponics Flora Series. and everyone enjoys it. Except for my Pothos N-Joy because there’s always one that has to be picky.
Amydrium Medium Silver temperature requirements
I’ve only had this in the summer so I’ll have to update next year to see how it fayres over the winter. I’ve heard people say they need high temperatures, and other people saying they HATE it when it’s too warm.
Mine has been fine in temps as low as 15˚C/60˚F and as high as 26˚C/80˚F.
And by fine I mean it doesn’t seem to care either way.
Amydrium Medium Silver potting mix/pot type requirements
I recently repotted mine, because it needed to go on a pole. I used a mix of terrarium soil and leca, and it seems fine, but I’ve noticed that growth has slowed a bit. Though it has rained a lot so it could be a light thing.
I have it on a Kratiste pole and it doesn’t seem particularly interested in attaching yet, but different plants grow aerial roots at different rates.
I’ve seen someone on YouTube keeping it in a terracotta pot, so I guess it’s happy to dry out (or she’s trying to curb overwatering).
Is Amydrium Medium Silver a type of Monstera?
No, they’re a separate genus. They’re related, but not particularly closely. As closely related as Rhaphidophora or Philodendron are to Monstera.
They grow in a similar fashion, and in a similar environment, so have evolved in a similar way.
Monstera deliciosa don’t put out runners, but I think the most similar plant in terms of growth pattern to Amydrium medium is Monstera peru (which is probably an Epipremnum, just to confuse you).
They have a very similar mix of vines with short internodal spaces and runners.
Are Amydrium Medium Silver rare?
They don’t seem to be – there are loads on Etsy – here’s one from a UK shop. They’re also available from Grow Tropicals.
The silver colour and similarities to Monstera deliciosa made them a shoo-in for the market, so they went from being virtually unheard of to being tissue cultured very quickly.
They tend to be slower growing and smaller than Monstera deliciosas too, which makes them more attractive to people with smaller homes.
They seem a little more difficult to get hold of in the US – you can get Amydrium from Gabriella Plants, but they didn’t have any silver ones when I checked.
They come from Borneo and the silver ones are actually a wild form – I don’t know why I thought they’d been, er, bred in captivity, but I just assumed they were. This article has some great photos from a guy who goes looking for them.
Are Amydrium Medium Silver expensive (+where to buy)?
They’re not that expensive any more. Mine was reduced to £9.99 but it had only been £22.99 originally.
That being said, the bigger the plant, and the more fenstrations it has, the more expensive it’ll be.
I mean, this is always true, but it's especially true for plants with mature leaves (i.e. fenestrations) and plants that are known to grow slowly.
How to propagate Amydrium Medium Silver
I noticed a LOT of people saying that the speed of growth increased after cutting, so it might be a good idea to take off a node or two if growth has slowed.
You can propagate the nodes in water, but I tend to only recommend this if you have a leaf or two. If you want to propagate runners, then I’d recommend either following the directions of propagating a wet stick or layering it.
To layer a runner, just lay the runner in some moss, perlite, or soil as if you were rotting a wet stick but whilst it’s still attached to the mother plant.
Nodes root much quicker if they're still receiving water and nutrients from the mother plant, and it's less like dry up and/or rot.
Final thoughts
Aymdrium Medium Silver are one of those cool plants that are interesting and different because they’re both silver AND fenestrated, and the adult leaves have that weird being that makes it a bit, er, diseased (in a good way! I think!).
They’re also fairly cheap, and not difficult to get hold of (in the UK at least).
They don’t require specialist care, but I highly recommend you give it a decent amount of bright light, and get it on a pole before it gets the chance to put out runners.
