houseplant question

[BlackShanglan]

OK, mother in law's tongue I've heard of. We have those in the yard, out by the banana tree.

Those are also known as snakeplant, and I can personally vouch for their staying power. I've had one for four or five years now, long past the death of everything else I bought with it. It's handled long droughts, poor light, dry air, the lot. Now I have another.

Supposedly there's a reason why they call aspidistra "cast iron plant." I haven't had one, but when I did some research into houseplants to try to find some I wouldn't horribly murder, aspidistra kept coming up.

Some of the ivy plants might be good for the situation you're describing. They tend to do well with low light, although they might need more water.

One other thing you might consider: try a grow light. I bought a little "plant bulb" that fits into a normal lamp, and it does appear to have saved the swiss cheese plant that was languishing in my office. I set it on a timer and the plant gets several hours of light from it each day, and it's in markedly better health. The lamp looks to me like it's giving plain white light, so you could use it anywhere you wanted some light anyway.