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Many plants are worth growing simply for their impressive leaves, and there is a long list to choose from including the alocasias, many with giant arrow-shaped leaves; caladiums, such as angel wings (Caladium bicolor), with its rich pink and red foliage; the Japanese fatsia (Fatsia japonica), a vastly underrated plant with impressive, glossy leaves; and a wide variety of bromeliads, found in the wild growing deep in rainforests, with their striped flashy leaves.
 Angel Wings
Caladiums are grown for their superb, heart-shaped, exquisitely colored leaves, which range from rich red with green edging to white with red splashes. Caladium bicolor ('Pink Beauty') has red-veined leaves that are pink in the center with speckled bright green margins.
 Friendship Plant
The first-rate, eye-catching Pilea involucrata has extraordinary tactile leaves that are dark green in the center, with a pale green band running around the outside. The thickly textured leaves, made up of tiny segments, are beautifully arranged in pairs. Growth is very vigorous and creates a bushy, mounded effect.
 'Can-Can' Copperleaf
Grown for its attractive, dark copper foliage, 'Can-Can' is related to the spreading shrub. Acalypha wilkesiana grows wild in the Pacific Islands and has multicolored, often variegated leaves and long catkinlike flowers. 'Can-Can' is grown not for its catkins but for its colored leaves, which are serrated, slightly red at the margins, and about 6 in. long.
Selecting Plants
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