The Ultimate Guide to Rare Houseplants: What Makes a Plant “Rare”

In the collector world, the word unicorn gets thrown around easily. But at Rare Plant Fairy, a true unicorn isn’t just hard to find — it’s rare for a reason. Rarity has anatomy. It’s part genetics, part patience, part art, and always a little bit of luck.

What Makes a Plant Rare

A plant’s rarity comes from more than just how many exist. True rarity can stem from a mix of:

• Genetic uniqueness — mutations or traits that can’t be easily replicated.

• Propagation difficulty — species that resist cloning or grow painfully slowly.

• Hybridization — one-of-a-kind crosses that can’t be repeated exactly.

• Environmental sensitivity — plants that thrive only under precise conditions.

• Market scarcity — when a plant is new to the market, demand surges faster than supply can catch up.

Each of these factors can make a plant rare, but the most extraordinary unicorns combine several at once.

The Myth of “Mass-Produced” Lab Plants

There’s a common misconception that if a plant comes from a lab, it must be mass produced. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Tissue culture is not an assembly line; it’s precision horticulture at a microscopic scale. Each species behaves differently, and yields vary dramatically.

At RPF Labs, for example, Hoya species actually propagate faster from cuttings. In tissue culture they multiply very slowly and may take months before producing new shoots. Green, non-variegated plants can be produced more efficiently because their growth is uniform and stable. Anthurium cultures are among the slowest, taking up to two years to move from initiation to full production. Chimeral variegated plants are the hardest of all; most regenerations emerge either fully green or fully variegated, with very few showing the balanced marbling collectors love. Yields from those lines are exceptionally low.

While tissue culture allows for ethical propagation without removing plants from the wild, it doesn’t guarantee volume. Each flask in our lab represents months of sterile technique, testing, and acclimation — not mass replication. At Rare Plant Fairy, lab-grown means ethically propagated, not factory made.

When Rarity Meets Beauty — Our Current Unicorns

Monstera deliciosa ‘White Lava’

A masterpiece of genetic variegation, ‘White Lava’ displays dramatic marbling that flows across each leaf like brushstrokes — no two are the same. Stabilizing this pattern takes years, and even then, only a fraction of propagated plants express the signature “lava” streaks that collectors covet.

Monstera ‘Devil Monster’

The ultimate hybrid — powerful, sculptural, and nearly mythic. With exaggerated fenestrations and bold contrast, ‘Devil Monster’ embodies the pinnacle of Monstera breeding. In 2024, a mature specimen sold at international auction for over $45,000, solidifying its place among the most sought-after Monsteras ever produced. 

Alocasia amazonica pink variegated

Proof that not every unicorn is born in a lab, this U.S. clone is not in tissue culture. It’s propagated exclusively through careful vegetative division, yielding only a handful of plants each year. Its shield-shaped leaves are enormous, and streaked with vivid pink variegation that shifts as the plant matures. Because propagation is manual and the yield tiny, every specimen represents hundreds of hours of grower care.

Ethical Rarity, Grown the Right Way

At Rare Plant Fairy, rarity never comes at the cost of biodiversity. Every unicorn we release is propagated through controlled in-house growing or sustainable tissue culture, never through wild collection. Our goal isn’t to flood the market; it’s to protect the genetics that make these plants extraordinary while making them accessible responsibly.

“True rarity isn’t about how few exist. It’s about how carefully they’re grown.”

Why Collectors Chase Them

Unicorn plants connect people to something bigger than a trend. They represent nature’s unpredictability — that moment when a single cell mutates and creates something the world has never seen before. For collectors, that unpredictability is the magic. Every new leaf is a one-of-a-kind moment in time.

Explore the Unicorn Collection →

Frequently Asked Questions

Are lab-grown plants mass produced?
Not at all. Tissue culture isn’t industrial manufacturing — it’s precise, small-scale horticulture. Each plant starts from a single cell in a sterile environment, and many species take months or even years to multiply. Yields are often low, especially for variegated or slow-growing varieties. “Lab-grown” simply means ethically propagated under controlled conditions, not mass produced.

Why do some plants take years to produce through tissue culture?
Every plant species grows at its own pace. Anthurium cultures, for example, can take up to two years to move from initiation to full production. Others, like Hoya, multiply so slowly in tissue culture that they’re often still propagated by cuttings instead. Patience is part of the process — true rarity can’t be rushed.

Why are variegated plants harder to produce in tissue culture?
Variegation is caused by genetic differences between cells, and tissue culture starts with only a few cells at a time. Many regenerations turn out fully green or fully variegated, so very few clones preserve the perfect balance of color. That’s why yields are extremely low for chimeral variegates and why these plants remain so rare.

What makes a plant a “unicorn” instead of just rare?
A unicorn plant isn’t only rare — it’s remarkable. It might have an unrepeatable mutation, an exceptionally low propagation rate, or a form so unique it feels sculpted by nature. True unicorns like Monstera ‘Devil Monster’ or Alocasia amazonica pink variegated are one-of-a-kind expressions of both science and beauty.