Chameleon plant is a flowering perennial groundcover in the Saururaceae (Lizard's Tail) family native to southeast Asia. It has showy green and white flowers and leaves with unusual fall color. The genus name Houttuynia comes from the 18th centry Dutch naturalist Martin Houttuyn. Cordata is Latin for heart-shaped referring to leaves. With a creeping habit, it spreads quickly by rhizomes that can grow from any segment of its foliage and can reach one to two feet in height continuously spreading along the ground as it grows. It prefers full sun, but is very shade tolerant; however, it does not tolerate drought conditions. It does best in moist soil to shallow standing water (1-2 in.) The roots run deep and the plant can become very difficult to remove once established . Exercise caution when using this plant in the landscape by putting it in a 1 to 2-gallon container in the ground, or an area bounded by sidewalk or driveway to contain it. Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: Aphids, slugs and snails can be problematic. Spreads aggressively, consider native alternatives in the left-hand column.
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.
Deep shade (Less than 2 hours to no direct sunlight) | Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day) | Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)