Hi,
so I have this Stephania Erecta that has been growing since I got it last January.
It hat tons of sprouts and leaves!
and I watered it always very carefully. I normally do have a bit of a heavy hand with my watering can, so I made sure I watered the Stephania only when it was dry. In the past few weeks I watered it even less since we have winter now and the days are short and dark.

Now I notice that since approx. 2 or 3 weeks the leaves shrivel and turn yellow, and fall off at some point. The caudex has still the same shape as in the beginning, so it is not mushy or shriveled, no pests and the caudex feels firm and plump. I did not take the whole thing out of its pot, but I pulled slightly at the caudex and it seems it is firmly rooted as it does not move at all. So I wonder: is it possible that I killed the plant due to underwatering (however I assume this is difficult since the caudex stores some water) or is the plant actually feeling the winter time and going into dormancy?

What irritates me is that I read somewhere that the plant does not go dormant if the temperature stays warm. And indeed my apartment is heated and I didn't put the plant into a cooler spot. So technically, when looking at the temperature, the plant cannot know it's winter.

Also an interesting question will be how this thing wakes up in spring. Will it be necessary to perform some steps or should I just put it in a warm and bright spot and it will wake up on its own? do I need to water it to wake it up? I think this is the most complicated part because when it has no roots and leaves yet I am very afraid of rotting it when I water it.

I don't have experience to grow this in winter, but you may find useful information about it in the link below..
https://www.happyhouseplants.c....

Additional info, I treat my Stephania ( S. Venosa, not S. Erecta) as tropoical plant, not succulent. I water it almost everyday, as it has a lot of leaves and those leaves need water.
The problem with yours is that we don't know it has dried of no water or dormant because of winter. Maybe you can try to spray some water on the leaves and on the caudex, not to make the soil too wet, incase she will grow new branches and leaves.

The leaves of my plant are not dry, they just turn yellow, then crispy and then fall off.
So I believe itbis dormancy, as the caudex is still very plump and hard.
But I am not entirely sure at which time of the year it goes dormant and how this looks like!
what do your plants do when they enter dormancy?

I will try to summarize the most helpful text I read about the genus in the book Pachyforms, which I highly recommend (but believe it's out of print and quite costly if you can find it). I have no experience with this species but will try to also share some best guesses.

Anyway, in Pachyforms, the author discusses S. rotunda but mentions erecta near the bottom, so I'd think they behave the same (as do other plants in the genus, apparently). He says temps best in the 70s and 80s (F) and not below 50° in winter. Humidity at least 70%. The relevant text:

"If kept warm, it can grow nearly year-round or just undergo a brief dormancy. If dormant, it will drop leaves and stems, and should be kept drier."

So given the situation, and the mild temps you are describing, it may have responded to light instead, maybe combined with underwatering, and decided to take a nap. Day length and light intensity are the key signs of winter for these plants. They can tell the season from light alone.

By "kept drier" he presumably means watering less often and/or less deeply, depending on how you want to go about it. I would cut the watering frequency in half, or reduce it even further, compared to how you were handling the plant during its leafy phase.

Given the apparent dormancy, I would still put it in the brightest spot you have available indoors (darkness is not helpful when it comes to wet feet) and this may help encourage it to sprout some new growth when the time/season is right.

thanks for your hints!
I also believe it is going dormant but was unsure how that looks.
By the way I just checked the caudex, still firm and no mushy spots or mold!

I would like to have it in a nicer pot, do you know whether it is a wise idea to repot it while it is sleeping?

How will it know when it's spring time? just from the temperature?

Usually we will not recommend any repot while the plant is dormant, but I think Stephania is a Bruce Willies / die hard plant, when people get them from rain forest, they just get the caudex and cut all the roots and stems. I will not worry on repotting her anytime.
I will recommend that you fill the pot up to the edge, so that you can show / display the caudex, don't forget to arrange a trellis for her to climb..
This is my Stephania setup for your reference, initially I used cactus/succulent mix for the media, but upon further research I find out that Stephania is from rain forest, then I changed the media into 1/3 of compost/humus , 1/3 garden soil , and 1/3 of gravels + tree bark

thanks Kaktus!

I would like to add that my plant is definitely not poached from the wild as it is from a very reputable local seller who is also selling jewel orchids and the like. He grows them himself, perhaps this is the reason why my caudex is so small (maybe 4cm diameter max). By the way I like the little eyes you have added to your caudex! 😛

When would you recommend to repot it? I thought doing this while it is alive and growing it would be even more disturbing.

How does your Stephania look like when it goes dormant and when does that happen approximately? how much water do you give it during this time? I read something about ca. 1 teaspoon per month.

This is how she look like at 9th of October, dead potato.


The picture that I posted earlier was taken at 24th Nov ( 6 weeks only)

I watered her lightly when she has no leaves, like twice a week with minimum water that will just enough maintain some moisture. But once she had some matured leaves, I water her daily,

In terms of treatment while it is in winter dormancy, I don't have experience as I live in tropical country, but I will definitely follow the advice from Baja.

Thanks Kaktus!
and yours also gets yellow and later brown leaves when it goes dormant, like mine?

I just have mine for 2 months, not yet experienced dormant, and possibly will never experience that in here in Indonesia

Hi together,
I wanted to ask something else concerning my stephania!
of course my stephania did indeed enter its dormant phase and a couple weeks ago it started sprouting again! during the dormancy, I kept it bone dry and it started sprouting by itself. Now I give it water very rarely, because I am afraid as hell that it will rot.

In the meantime, I got another stephania bulb from a friend. And this one also started sprouting, about 2 months ago. However, it has no roots yet, and I wonder why. As long as it has no roots, I keep it dry and water it only with a couple droplets. Its sprout is about 1cm in height and kept staying the same since it appeared. It looks like if it paused growing for some reason.

I should mention that I put my plants outside as summer is coming. We still have cool nights (about 16..18°C) but very warm days (25..30°C). My stephania bulbs are in a spot where they have only a tiny bit of morning sun, and during the day they have shade. So they don't get burned.

As I said, both of them paused growing and I don't understand why as all my other plants like being outside (much more light and warm temperatures during the day). Should I water more?
Is it possible that my "small" stephania is dead, even though it is still green and the bulb is firm and strong?
Should I bring it back inside? this will have the drawback that it has worse light conditions and cooler temperature during day, but warmer during night. Not sure what is best.

Any hints?

I have attached a picture of both stephanias, the one that sprouted a couple weeks ago and was growing so far, and the "small" one. The large one with many leaves is the one I showed earlier in this thread and the sprout has now a height of about 10cm. I am very happy! but I wonder why it pauses.

"large" plant with beautiful leaves, about 10cm height


"small" one that pauses already for more than a month

Stephanias do go dormant in tropic also, the inducer will be mostly drought. but temperature can also cause dormancy in tropical climate.

I garden very close to equatorial line in Sumatra. the temperatures although do not vary much all year, but it does fluctuates during dry and rainy season especially in montaineus area.

Mainly I grow plants in my highland garden (900 m above sea level), and few plants grown at my small house at lowland near the sea. both garden have very different features.

I grow 4 Stephanias: Erecta, Venosa, Japonica, and Corymbosa. The last three are natives to my country, and Corymbosa is native to my area. All three are vigorous grower, grow gangly-viney, that you will need to trim often.

S. erecta is an imported species in my country, it behave differently.
The first time I bought it, I grew them on my lowland garden, on hot-humid-tropical-situation. They grow, but slow. So I though, perhaps higland would be better for them. I moved them, within their pot without disturbing roots at all. However, I found that it won't grow in cool highland, goes dormant within few first week being transferd (night temp can goes down to 15 C in the cool rainy season. Day time mostly 25 C)
The leaves goes yellowing and fell off, followed by dry stem. The bulb stay firm without stem or leaves for months. I kept them 6 months and it never wake up. I thought they are dead.
At the last attempt, I moved them back to lowland, put on a window sill in small repurposed plastic bottle, and with in two weeks they resprout.

Too bad, not much information of culture available that I can find suitable for my garden condition, so the only way to know is to try.

In my case: I found them to prefer hot lowland situation, sensitives to cool temps, and can stay dormant stemless and leafless for months.
If you want slowgrower cute small plants, S erecta is great, but if you prefer huge vigorous plant it is not the one

I'll try taking photos tomorrow.

Here are the three Stephanias I grow on highland :

Stephania venosa, the most rampant one, it can have huge irregular shaped caudex.


Stephania corymbosa, vining through the roof of the shade house. Sorry for the dark photo. it was very early in the morning. I took pictures before leaving home to work, still quite dark outside.
S corymbosa is my favourite, it grow fast, caudex smaller, the leaves has long petioles and leaf blades move and swings on a slightles breeze, showing the silvery abaxial.


Stephania japonica. Again very sorry for the dark pictures.
pointy leaves, stiff, caudex not so big, warty surface.


The last one is Stephania erecta, Slow grower, small plant. do not like cool or cold temperature, can be dormant for a very long period. I left them on windowsill for almost 6 month by now, and it is only 20 cm in length. (the small container might also cause them to stunt, but over all it was always slow grower for me.)