Cigar plant
Cuphea ignea
Also called Cuphea, Firecracker plant (cuphea) and Mexican cigar plant
Houseplant · FloweringOne of the easiest flowering houseplants there is and it flowers almost continuously — pinch the tips every few weeks or it goes lanky and bald at the bottom. Hummingbird-pollinated, which is why the flowers are tubes and not open.
Care at a glance
- Ease
- Easy
- Water
- Every 4 daysKeep it moist — water at the first hint of dryness — don't wait for a dry pot.
- Light
- Bright, with some direct sun
- Feed
- Every 21 days
- Humidity
- Average
- Hardiness
- Indoors, or out for the summer RHS H1C, to 5°C
- Size
- 0.5 m tall · 0.5 m across
- Lifecycle
- Perennial
- Origin
- Mexico and Jamaica
Is it safe for pets and people?
No animal-poison authority lists this plant either way.
Nobody has checked this one against a source for us yet, so treat it as unknown rather than safe.
Neither authority names Cuphea. That is an absence and not a clean bill.
Checked against ASPCA and RHS on 2026-09-22. Where a source says nothing, we say nothing.
A guide, not veterinary or medical advice. If a pet or a person has eaten a plant and you are worried, call your vet or doctor now — don’t wait for signs to appear. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
First signs of trouble
- Long bare stems with the leaves and flowers only at the tips. Pinch the growing points out every few weeks from the start — once it is leggy, cutting back is the only cure and it costs a month of flowers.Going bald at the bottom · disorder
- A cloud of tiny white moths lifting off when the plant is brushed, and a sticky shine on the leaves underneath.Whitefly · pest