Dischidia Geri has some confusion around its name and its close relationship to D. oiantha. It is endemic to the Philippines and is supposed to be one of the easiest of all Dischidia to keep with a wide range of temperature extremes in which it will survive. I only kept this one briefly to flower it and moved on from there.

If you are looking for a fast growing foliage plant for a hanging basket, I can’t recommend Dischidia oiantha highly enough. While I grew the plain green version there is a very attractive variegated plant available as well. It grew well for me in sphagnum, but I believe that it would be equally at home in a chunky Hoya mix as well. Allow to fully dry before watering and it should give you years of pleasure.

The cutting that I purchased as D. oiantha has much more elongated leaves than D. geri so I would have to say that they appear to be different in my mind. See Photos below:

Dischidia oiantha

Dischidia geri

Dischidia oiantha has the typical very small flowers of the Dischidia genus, which are difficult to photograph well.

I find that with most Dischidia you can get away with growing them in nothing but sphagnum moss for a long time. Dischidia oiantha was no different and exploded in growth growing in sphagnum.

Dischidia oiantha is endemic to the Philippines where it was described by Rudolf Schlechter in 1904.

Looking around the other day, I noticed that there were a couple of Dischidia that I have kept over the years that never made it to this website so I thought that I would take the time now while it is relatively slow to remedy the situation. We will begin talking about Dischidia oiantha starting tomorrow.

The common name of Dischidia ovata is the Watermelon Dischidia, because of the shape, pattern, and color of the leaves. I have successfully grown this plant in the regular house as a hanging basket and in grow tents and greenhouses. It makes a lovely houseplant that gets my highest recommendation.

I have found that Bonsai Jack’s Inorganic Bonsai Substrate with a little bit of vermiculite mixed in to hold a little extra moisture works exceptionally well for growing Dischidia ovata. It does not break down and seems to give the roots room to breathe. I water the mix about once a week, and the plant is very happy.

I forgot about the plant for a few years but decided in 2016 that I needed another one and have successfully kept it ever since. I have grown it well using two different substrates. It grows quite well for a couple of years in sphagnum moss as most Dischidia do, but after that time the sphagnum begins to break down, and then the moss holds too much water, and root rot sets in. Tomorrow I talk about the best substrate that I have found for this plant.