Pothos vs Philodendron || Spot the Difference

hey guys it's riva and i'm back with another plant video okay so in today's video we're going to be talking about two of my favorites both incredibly common easy to care for low maintenance house plants and they are pathos and philodendron or is it pathos and philodendron i guess we'll have to find out stay tuned okay so at first glance these two beautiful plant babies are often mistaken for each other and it makes sense they have a similar look they're both lush green low-light tolerant vining plants they both have similar care requirements when it comes to light soil temperature humidity all that jazz so it's easy to understand especially when you're new to house plants it's easy to understand how you can get the two of them confused but there are very distinct characteristics between the two of them and today i want to talk about that and help you understand what to look for when you're trying to figure out which one is a and which one is a okay so really quickly before we get into the differences i just wanted to show you this little mix and match party pot that i did with um two different types of skin dapsis um and i'm not two different types of skin deficiencies what am i saying two different types of the binding philodendron two types of pothos and one type of skindapsis the argerius that you see right there poking through and because these plants have similar care requirements when it comes to lighting soil humidity temperature when it comes to all of that they have they can tolerate relatively the same type of environment and because of that you get to do a little fun stuff like this like mix them all together in a little just a little a little party pot or something whatever you want to call it but i just want to show you guys that real quick and now let's get into the differences and some of the similarities as well okay so let's talk about a proper numb potos or devil's iv whatever you want to call it is an incredibly common super cheap easy to find house plant and it's also very low maintenance which makes it an easy plant to take care of especially for beginners so this particular plant is a jade pothos and we had these all over the house when i was growing up so when it comes to telling these plants apart the first thing you'll do is just look at the leaves on the pothos the leaves are going to be much larger they're going to be thicker and waxier and if you look at the mid-rib down the center it'll be much more indented than you would see on the philodendron whereas when you look at this plant the leaves are much more heart-shaped hence its name and you'll also notice that the leaves are thinner and they have a much softer texture another thing to note on the plant is that where the petiole connects to the base of the leaf here you'll see that it curves inward for the philodendron and that dramatic curve helps to create that heart shape whereas on the pathos in comparison you'll see that that that space right there is much more flat so that's another way to tell them apart another noticeable difference between the pathos and the the philodendron is going to be the cataphils so on a philodendron when a new leaf is emerging it's going to come out of a cataphile or a modified leaf-like structure and that's what protects the new leaf until it emerges so it'll start off more of a papery white color and as it ages it'll get darker and it'll turn to this orangey brown color before it eventually just falls off if you don't like the way they look you can also just take them off it won't harm the plant on a pothos plant when the new leaves are emerging you'll see them coming up out of the the petiole on the old leaves and speaking of new leaves the coloring on the new leaves is another way to tell the difference between the pathos and the philodendron when pothos leaves first come out they are just a lighter shade of whatever color that pathos is so if it's a if it's a jade pothos the new emerging leaves are going to be just a much lighter green in color but with the hartley philodendron when the new leaves emerge they have a pinkish or brown tint and then they have eventually developed that nice rich green color that they're known for okay so those are the differences that you might notice just from appearance but there are also slight differences in care when it comes to both of these plants as well so one thing i've noticed for sure is that my hartley philodendron this guy he prefers a little more light or he's he's a little less tolerant to darker conditions than the jadepothoses and with that i mean that i'll just notice that he will get a little leggier quicker than the pothos will with the same low light condition so i just generally prefer to keep both of these guys in bright and direct light but if you don't have that and you need to keep them in a lower light condition this guy is going to get leggier quicker than the the neon than the jade pathos would another thing that i've noticed for me is that the pothos is just slightly easier to propagate from water cuttings from water cuttings the pathos is just slightly easier to propagate yeah this guy like i said before this is entirely made up of cuttings that i took from a previous plant and what i've noticed is that just when it comes to propagating cuttings pothos is so much easier to to grow and to develop and much quicker to develop um from cuttings than than my philodendron has been for me you know if you have a different experience by all means go ahead and leave a comment below and just let us know if you had any trouble or ease with getting the philodendron to or philodendron cuttings to to propagate but yeah that's pretty much it the main differences that you're gonna notice um right off the bat it's gonna be the cataphils because they they're attention grabbing so you'll notice the cataphils on the philodendron and if it doesn't have any then it's probably apothose another thing you'll notice right off the bat is that where the petiole connects to the leaf if it's drastically indented in like a like a concave v shape then it's going to be a philodendron um with the pothos like i said it's much more of a gradual it's much more of a gradual curve yeah that's pretty much it that is the hartley philodendron and the jade pothos and hopefully now you're able to identify the difference between the two of them i personally i don't have a favorite among them i love both of these plants i think they're both beautiful and unique in their own ways and i mean i know they just both look like like green bushes but to me they're they're quite unique in their own way that's it that's it for the video if you like the video go ahead and like the video down below and subscribe or leave a comment it'll help my channel you know grow and get bigger and maybe more people will see so if you enjoy this content definitely give me a thumbs up and i'll see you in the next one bye

Channel: Reva Ferns

Views: 1,435

Rating: 4.8709679 out of 5

Keywords: philodendron, pothos, scandens, hederaceum, heartleaf philodendron, brasil philodendron, houseplants, houseplants 101, low light houseplants

Id: lbKTS7RP5NY

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021