Plants featuring purple and green foliage
offer an elegant method to introduce vibrant colors and striking contrasts into both your outdoor garden and interior spaces. With their deep purple leaves paired against vivid greenery, these houseplants become focal points, bestowing upon planters and containers a luxurious, multi-dimensional appearance. Here we present 19 alluring choices designed to transform your gardening area with breathtaking aesthetics!
18 Colorful Varieties of Plants With Purple and Green Leaves
1. Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’
This charming plant forms a vibrant tapestry with its colors.
Almost jet-black-purple leaves bordered in deep green. It flowers from late spring into early summer, adorned with small lavender blossoms that create an appealing contrast.
For great ground cover during these months, it complements other shade-tolerant plants in areas where growing grass is challenging.
2. Purple Knight alternanthera dentata
The Purple Knight boasts deep purple foliage accented with traces of green along the margins. As an annual species, this resilient plant excels in warmth and flourishes when exposed to ample sunlight. Its sturdy stalks can extend upwards to about 3 feet. With minimal upkeep required, it makes an excellent option for pots or garden edging.
3. Brassica rapa var. rosularis ‘Purple Tatsoi’ (Purple Tatsoi)
Part of the Brassica family, this leafy plant boasts purple foliage with hints of green. Fortunately, purple tatsoi isn’t merely decorative—
it’s edible, too!
It has a flavor similar to spinach and works wonderfully as part of mixed green salads.
4. Coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides)
Commonly referred to as Painted Nettle, Coleus is highly prized for its vibrantly colored foliage featuring an array of patterns and hues including purples, lime greens, and dark maroons. This plant belongs to the family of
the mint family
That’s simple to cultivate at home either as a houseplant or for beds. They can be positioned in hanging baskets, pots, or planted directly in a garden bed.
5. Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’ (Black Magic Taro)
This dramatic plant has large, heart-shaped leaves in purple shades with green highlights, especially
when young. It thrives in areas with moist soil, partial shade, and places that can protect its leaves from strong winds. Black taro is mostly grown for foliage, but it may infrequently produce flowers
.
6. Gynura aurantiaca (Purple Velvet Plant)
Also known as Purple Passion, the purple velvet plant has fuzzy leaves with purple color and green undersides. It’s commonly grown as a houseplant and best displayed in hanging baskets. You might even see it blooming small, orange flowers in the right conditions.
7. Hemigraphis alternata (Purple Waffle Plant)
This plant features a wrinkled appearance with bumpy, greenish upper sides and purplish bottoms, adding charm to both residential and commercial interiors. Due to its compact growth habit, it serves well as groundcover for larger indoor flora.
8. Hypoestes phyllostachya (Polka Dot Plant)
Polka dot plants offer numerous color combinations, yet perhaps none as delightful as the purple-green variant.
This tropical plant can thrive both inside your home or outside in the garden, and its mottled leaves along with its vertical stalks make it ideal.
For use in edging or as a potted plant.
9. Ipomoea batatas ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’ (Purple Sweet Potato Vine)
This decorative vine boasts lobed purple foliage tinged with green hues and exhibits robust growth. Its rapid spread makes it ideal as a groundcover; however, due to its cascading branches, it also looks stunning when planted in pots or hanging baskets. Although it does produce flowers from time to time, it’s primarily cultivated for its attractive leaf coloration rather than its blossoms.
10. Oxalis triangularis (Purple Shamrock)
Also called
False Shamrock
This plant may resemble clovers, but it does not belong to the same family. The purple shamrock stands out uniquely with its dark violet and green foliage and stems. It’s quite favored as an indoor plant; however, it can also be cultivated outside since it thrives best when exposed directly to sunlight.
11. Oxalis tetraphylla ‘Iron Cross’
The Iron Cross is alternatively called the ‘Good Luck Plant,’ featuring four heart-shaped green leaflets adorned with a dark purple cross in the middle. Curiously, these leaves unfurl during daylight hours only to fold back again at dusk, resembling little umbrellas. This plant thrives suitably in pots or within rock garden settings.
12. Ocimum basilicum ‘Purpurascens’ (Purple Basil)
Yet another tasty option, this type of basil stands out due to its dark purple foliage trimmed with green edges, providing not only taste but also visual appeal. Ideal for enhancing summertime meals or complementing tomato-centric green salads.
13. Strobilanthes dyerianus (Shield of Persia)
The Persian shield is famous for its stunning purple foliage edged with green. It has been
grown since Victorian times
It serves as an impressive ornamental plant. The Persian shield flourishes in hot and humid environments, developing into a large and lush shrub. In cooler climates, however, it remains smaller but still manages to grow.
14. Stromanthe sanguinea (Tricolor Ginger)
This gorgeous plant features elongated green leaves with streaks of purple and burgundy undersides. Native to Brazil, it requires warm temperatures and high humidity to survive. Depending on the conditions, Tricolor ginger may grow from 3 to 5 feet tall.
15. Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’ (Purple Heart)
Purple Heart boasts long, narrow purple leaves with hints of green at the base of the plant. It’s a tender perennial with sprawling stems that make it excellent as a ground cover, though it can also trail nicely in containers.
16. Tradescantia zebrina (Zebra plant/Wandering Jew)
The iconic Wandering Jew (or Wandering Dude) is an alluring houseplant featuring silver-streaked purple and green foliage. This rapidly growing, fleshy-leaved species thrives indoors when placed in hanging pots or serves as excellent groundcover outside. With optimal care, it might produce tiny violet blooms.
17. Tradescantia spathacea (Moses-in-the-Cradle)
Commonly known as ‘Boat Lily,’ this erect perennial features pointed, sword-shaped green leaves with purple undersides. It is frequently utilized as an ornamental plant due to its striking foliage, making it ideal for borders or container arrangements.
18. Calathea lietzei ‘White Fusion’ (Calathea White Fusion)
The final addition to our list includes plants boasting marbled green and white foliage with purplish undersides. Known as White Fusion, this variety is quite desirable due to its striking and distinctive leaf designs. Typically reaching heights of around 18 inches, it’s an ideal selection for adding a hint of tropics to your space.
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