Nerve plant
Sources last read 14 September 2026.
Difficult One of the harder ones, and one of the reasons the diagnosis tool exists.
Also called Jewel Plant, Mosaic Plant, painted net-leaf, Silver Fittonia, Silver Nerve, Silver Nerve Plant and Silver Threads.
Toxicity is partly unassessed
What the sources say about its care
Sources file this plant under other names: Fittonia albivenis Verschaffeltii Group (RHS), Fittonia verschaffeltii (ASPCA). Citations below point at the name its source uses.
- Light
- Partial shadeRHS, filed as Fittonia albivenis Verschaffeltii Group · read 13 September 2026
- Water
- Moist but well-drainedRHS, filed as Fittonia albivenis Verschaffeltii Group · 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- Temperature
How cold this tolerates, not what it prefers. No source read for this site publishes a preferred range for a plant indoors.
H1A — warmer than 15°C 15 °CRHS · read 13 September 2026- Soil
- Loam, Sand; pH NeutralRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Toxic to cats
- Listed as non-toxicASPCA, filed as Fittonia verschaffeltii · read 13 September 2026
- Toxic to dogs
- Listed as non-toxicASPCA, filed as Fittonia verschaffeltii · read 13 September 2026
- Harmful to people
- No statement of harm to people is published for this plant; that absence is not evidence it is safe.RHS · read 13 September 2026
How it usually goes wrong
- Dry, curled edges on leaves near a heater
A yellow halo sits just inside the brown edge on the nerve plant, and new leaves often come in already tipped with brown during the heating season.
Dry air takes water from the leaf surface continuously, and the tissue at the edge is last in the queue for what the roots send up. Penn State Extension notes there is no single humidity figure that suits every indoor plant.
Telling it apart: What else in the room changed. Edges that browned when the radiators came on point at the air rather than at the watering.
Penn State ExtensionNerve plant brown leaf tips and edges: causes- New leaves are smaller than the old and further apart
Compare this year's growth on the nerve plant with last year's: new leaves are smaller, thinner and a paler green, and the gap below each one is longer.
Light is the budget every other process is paid from. Under the partial shade its source names, the plant spends down reserves and shows it in thin, pale growth.
Telling it apart: Whether it leans. A plant reaching for a window is answering a light question, and it leans before it pales.
RHSDiagnose leggy growth on this Nerve plant- The outer leaves turn yellow and hang
Colour goes before shape on a nerve plant. The outer leaves yellow evenly, stay soft to the touch, and the compost two inches down is still wet from the last watering.
Kept wetter than the moist but well-drained its source describes, the root tips die back. A plant with fewer working roots cannot drink, which looks from above exactly like one that has not been watered.
Telling it apart: The smell. Healthy compost smells of earth; compost that has been wet too long does not.
RHSDiagnose yellowing leaves on this Nerve plant
Not sure which it is? Ask the diagnosis questions for Nerve plant.
Routine care
- Watering
- Water twice a week.NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026During growth, water moderately so the compost stays just moist, and feed monthly with a balanced liquid fertiliser.RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Feeding
- While growing, water moderately so the compost stays barely moist, and feed monthly with a balanced liquid fertiliser.RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Propagation
- Stem cuttingsNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026In spring, root tip cuttings that carry 3 or 4 leaf pairs, or layer in spring or summer.RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Pruning
- Pruning is not needed.RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Pests and diseases
- Can be troubled by mealybugs and glasshouse red spider mite. Diseases: grey moulds can occur.RHS · read 13 September 2026
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Photographs
About the plant
Fittonia albivenis is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae, native to the rainforests of Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Brazil. An evergreen perennial, it is notable for its dark green foliage with strongly contrasting white or red veins. It is commonly called nerve plant or mosaic plant. In temperate regions where the temperature falls below 10 °C (50 °F) it must be grown as a houseplant.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · read 13 September 2026
- Native range
- S. Trop. AmericaWorld Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026Bolivia, Northern Brazil, Columbia, Peru, and VenezuelaNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026PeruRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Climate
- wet tropicalWorld Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
- Growth form
- subshrubWorld Checklist of Vascular Plants, June 2026 release, CC BY.Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026Ground Cover, Herbaceous Perennial; habit creeping, spreading, weepingNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Matforming (evergreen)RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Size
- Height 3–8 in; width 6–18 inNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026Height 0.1-0.5 metres; spread 0.1-0.5 metres after 1–2 yearsRHS · read 13 September 2026
- Flowering
- Flowers white; blooms in summerNC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
Common problems with Nerve plant
More of the Acanthaceae family
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Ruellia makoyanaSourced care, difficulty not yet judged
Plants with similar care
Sources
- ASPCA · read 13 September 2026
- Kew WCVP · read 13 September 2026
- NC State Extension · read 13 September 2026
- Penn State Extension · read 13 September 2026
- RHS · read 13 September 2026
- Wikipedia · read 13 September 2026
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.