Plant Gender

• The chenille plant is dioecious -- plants are either male or female based on the sex organs present in the flowers. The exact geographic origin of this species is unknown, but likely in Southeast Asia, perhaps specifically to the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, to the east of Papua New Guinea. Seeds form only on female plants that receive male pollen on the wind or from insects that visited male flowers.
  
  

Seed Production

• In cultivation, only female chenille plants are known. The female flower spikes are large and showy, likely the reason it caught the eye of humans and is grown in tropical gardens. The plump, caterpillar-like flower spikes contain red, rarely ivory or pink, flowers with pistil organs that have five branches. With no male plants grown in cultivation, seeds are rarely obtained. Seeds from the wild would be needed, or a known male plant -- which produces non-showy flower clusters -- must be maintained once distinguished from a group of shrubs grown from seed.
  
  

Propagation

• Normally, chenille plants are propagated by vegetative branch cuttings. During the warmth and humidity of late spring to early summer, trimming off a 12- to 18-inch branch tip and plunging it into warm, moist, sandy soil leads to a rooted clone. The leaves are stripped from the cutting to prevent drying of the stem. The cutting is also trimmed back so two to three dormant buds, located in the base of leaves, are above the soil. Once roots form underground, the buds sprout and become fast-growing branches that develop into a bushy shrub.
  
  

Seed References

• Contact suppliers claiming to sell chenille plant seeds to learn of the viability of their seeds before buying. Ask how they obtained seed. Female chenille plants -- the plants offered as ornamental garden plants -- will not produce seeds if male flower pollen is missing from the growing environment. It is possible that male plants are grown in Southeast Asia or in rare botanical garden or nursery collections. Chenille plants grown from seed yield an unknown mix of male and female seedlings with variable physical characteristics, including flower colors.