Plant with heart-shaped leaves? Houseplants first, then garden and weeds

Garden plants and weeds with heart-shaped leaves

The houseplant identification key works through leaf shape, pattern and habit if your plant is indoors and none of these rows fits.

The second clue that tells them apart

Pairs or one at a time. Look at a node, the point where a leaf meets the stem. String of hearts, Hoya kerrii, lilac and purple dead-nettle carry leaves in opposite pairs. Philodendron, pothos, morning glory, bindweed, anthurium and alocasia carry one leaf per node. That one check splits the houseplant table in half.

Thin, waxy or succulent. Pinch a leaf gently. Hoya kerrii leaves are thick and fleshy, string of hearts small and slightly succulent, pothos and philodendron leathery but bendable.

Pothos or heartleaf philodendron. This is the most common mix-up in the whole group. NC State describes pothos leaves as heart-shaped to elliptic, often variegated, on stalks that sheathe the stem; heartleaf philodendron leaves are glossy green and emerge bronze. Run a finger down the leaf stalk: a groove means pothos. Look at the newest leaf: a brown papery sheath beside it means philodendron. Our pothos vs philodendron page has photos of both tests.

String of hearts or a tiny philodendron. NC State gives string of hearts leaves under an inch long, marbled silver, purple underneath, in opposite pairs on wiry pink stems with bead-like tubers. A young philodendron cutting has single, plain green leaves.

Where the stalk meets the leaf. On alocasia the stalk joins at the notch between the two lobes. On caladium, NC State calls the leaf peltate: the stalk attaches inside the blade, a little way in from the edge. Flip the leaf over to see it.

Morning glory or bindweed. Both are twining vines with funnel flowers. The RHS bindweed guide gives hedge bindweed heart-shaped leaves up to 12 cm and white flowers about 5 cm wide; field bindweed has smaller oval to arrow-shaped gray-green leaves up to 6 cm and flowers about 2 cm, usually pale pink. Common morning glory has fuzzy leaves, hairy stems and deep purple flowers with a white throat that last a few hours. The full comparison is on our bindweed page.

Violet, celandine or garlic mustard in the lawn. Wild violets grow in clumps with every leaf at the base; lesser celandine has glossy, fleshy leaves and yellow star flowers in early spring, then vanishes; first-year garlic mustard smells of garlic when crushed. If the leaves are on a creeping stem that roots at every node and smells of mint, you have ground ivy instead, whose leaves are round and scalloped rather than pointed.

Heart-shaped or shield-shaped. Japanese knotweed leaves look like hearts from a distance but have a straight, cut-off base, according to NC State; see our Japanese knotweed page if a bamboo-like stem carries them.

Heart-shaped or another outline. Several plants above sit on the border between shapes: pothos leaves run from heart-shaped to elliptic, greenbrier from round to heart-shaped, and garlic mustard turns triangular in its second year. The chart sets the heart-shaped leaf beside seven other outlines, linear, lanceolate, elliptic, ovate, obovate, round and triangular, so you can check the base of your leaf against each.

Heart-leaved plants listed as toxic

These listings come from the sources named; a plant missing here has not been shown to be harmless.

• Heartleaf philodendron, anthurium (flamingo flower), alocasia and caladium are listed as toxic to dogs, cats and horses by the ASPCA, which names insoluble calcium oxalates; the heartleaf philodendron entry lists oral irritation, drooling, vomiting and difficulty swallowing.
• Pothos is listed as toxic to dogs and cats by the ASPCA.
• Morning glory is listed as toxic to dogs, cats and horses by the ASPCA; the morning glory entry says large amounts of seeds may cause hallucinations.
• Lesser celandine is rated a low-severity poison and a problem for cats, dogs and horses in the NC State Plant Toolbox. Wild ginger is rated medium severity: NC State says it contains aristolochic acid and that no part of it should be consumed.

If a pet has chewed one of these, call your vet or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435. For a person, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 in the US, or NHS 111 in the UK. This site gives no edibility advice on any heart-leaved plant.

How a photo settles it

A single leaf held up to the camera is the weakest photo you can take of a heart-leaved plant, because the shape is the part they share. Photograph a stretch of stem with two or three nodes so the arrangement shows, and include the newest leaf: the sheath on a philodendron or the groove on a pothos stalk is often visible. For a vine outdoors, wait for a flower if you can.

Plant Identifier names the plant from one photo and gives the common and scientific names; it shows one answer with no confidence score, so check it against the quickest-check column above. If the answer is pothos and the stalk has no groove, ask the follow-up chat under the result how to tell pothos from philodendron. For a plant within reach of a cat or dog, Plant Identifier's Toxicology tool writes notes for people, dogs and cats, which you should read alongside the ASPCA entry. Once you know the name, the Care Guide in Plant Identifier covers light and watering for that plant.