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Angel Wings

Caladium bicolor, Araceae

Sources last read 14 September 2026.

Not yet rated How forgiving it is has not been judged here yet.

Also called Caladium, Candidum, Elephant's Ears, Exposition, Fancy-leaved Caladium, heart of Jesus, Mother-in-law Plant, Pai, Pink Cloud, Stoplight, Texas Wonder, Via and Via sori.

Angel Wings (Caladium bicolor), the whole plant.
Adesolive, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Angel Wings is toxic

  • Not assessed for cats. This plant is not on the ASPCA list. That is not a finding of safety: none of the sources read for this site gives an answer either way. Treat it as unknown.
  • Not assessed for dogs. This plant is not on the ASPCA list. That is not a finding of safety: none of the sources read for this site gives an answer either way. Treat it as unknown.
  • Toxic to people. Toxic to people (medium severity). NC State Extension

What the sources say about its care

Light
Deep shade, Partial Shade
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Water
Good Drainage, Moist
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Humidity

No source read publishes a humidity figure for any plant on this site. What follows is general guidance for foliage plants.

ASHRAE recommends indoor relative humidity between 30% and 60% 30–60%
Penn State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Soil
High Organic Matter; pH Acid (<6.0)
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Toxic to cats
Not on the ASPCA list. That is not a finding of safety.
ASPCA · read 13 September 2026
Toxic to dogs
Not on the ASPCA list. That is not a finding of safety.
ASPCA · read 13 September 2026
Harmful to people
Toxic to people (medium severity)
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026

Routine care

Watering
It uses a great deal of water and needs plenty while in growth.
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Feeding
Keep the soil moist, particularly in summer, and feed regularly in the growing season.
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Propagation
Tubers are used for propagation; lift them and store them through winter.
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026

Move something and watch

Loading the simulator. It needs JavaScript; the care table above does not.

Close view of Angel Wings (Caladium bicolor) foliage.
Close upNativeplants garden, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Angel Wings (Caladium bicolor) growing wild.
In the wildNativeplants garden, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

About the plant

Caladium bicolor, called Heart of Jesus, is a species in the genus Caladium from Latin America. It is grown as a houseplant for its large, heart or lance-shaped leaves with striking green, white, pink, and red blotching. Hundreds of cultivars are available. It can be planted outside in USDA Hardiness Zone 10 as an ornamental. It is a problematic invasive species in Trinidad and Tobago, Guam, Micronesia, Palau, Hawaii and the Philippines, and naturalized populations can be found in most of the rest of the world's tropics, including Africa, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia and Malesia.

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · read 13 September 2026

Native range
C. America to Argentina (Salta)
World Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.
Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
Central and South America
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Climate
wet tropical
World Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.
Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
Growth form
tuberous geophyte
World Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.
Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
Annual, Herbaceous Perennial
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Size
Height 12–24 in; width 12–30 in
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Flowering
Flowers gold/yellow, green; blooms in fall, spring, summer
NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026

More of the Araceae family

Plants with similar care

Sources

What this does not cover

The figures above are what published sources say, not measurements of the plant in your room. They say nothing about your pot size, your water, the season, or how far from the glass the plant stands, and those decide more than any figure here does.

Humidity has no species figure because no source read for this site publishes one, and the only temperature published for this plant is a cold floor. The simulator fills those gaps with general figures for its kind of plant, marked as general and listed on how we read sources. Where a toxicity row says the plant was not assessed, that is the absence of a finding and not a finding of safety.

If something is already wrong, the diagnosis tool asks about the soil, the window and the watering, which is where the answer usually is.