Collection

The Best Low Light Houseplants

Plants that genuinely grow in dim rooms. not ones that merely survive there for a few months before giving up.

  • Low light or Medium light

"Low light" is the most abused phrase in plant retail. Almost every plant sold as low light is really a plant that tolerates low light. It will hang on for a season, drop leaves steadily, and slowly decline. Genuine low light plants are rare, and there are maybe a dozen of them.

What low light actually means

A useful test: hold your hand about 30cm above a sheet of white paper at the spot in question, in the middle of the day. If you can see a sharp shadow, that is bright light. A soft, fuzzy shadow is medium. No visible shadow at all is low light, and very few plants grow there.

Worth knowing: distance from the window matters far more than most people assume. Light falls off sharply, so a spot two metres back from a bright window can easily be low light, even in a room that feels bright to your eyes.

What to expect

Even genuine low light plants grow slowly in dim conditions, and variegated varieties will lose their patterning as the plant drops sections that cannot pay for themselves. That is not the plant failing. It is the plant adapting correctly.

Two adjustments matter more than the plant choice: water considerably less, because a plant in low light uses far less of it and wet soil is the real killer; and clean the leaves, because dust meaningfully reduces the light reaching a plant that has none to spare.

28 plants in this collection

Written and maintained by the Plantnooq team.Last updated 27 July 2026.