Pilea libanensis

Pilea libanensis is a small creeping pilea from eastern Cuba, named for Monte Líbano near Guantánamo, where it was first collected. It is most likely the plant sold everywhere as Pilea glauca — a name that was never formally published — though the match has not yet been checked against herbarium specimens, and nurseries that label it Pilea glaucophylla are borrowing the name of a separate Colombian species. Tiny, rounded, silvery blue-green leaves sit in pairs along thin red stems, building a low mat that spills over edges and gives fine texture at a very small scale. Like its relative the artillery plant, its tiny pinkish flowers can burst open when watered and throw out a puff of pollen, though plants grown indoors rarely bloom. It does best in bright indirect light, high humidity and soil that stays evenly moist; the leaves crisp and drop when it dries out, and in a closed terrarium cuttings often root straight into the substrate.