String of bananas vs String of pearls

Curio radicans · Curio rowleyanus

Mature size: String of bananas reaches about 72 inches; String of pearls tops out near 36. Buying the wrong one for a shelf means rehoming it in a year.

Why these two get mixed up

Both are Curio, so they arrive on the same shelf under near-identical labels and are routinely swapped in the trade.

String of bananas (Curio radicans) — **String of bananas** — Curio radicans. Photograph by Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0.

String of pearls (Curio rowleyanus) — **String of pearls** — Curio rowleyanus. Photograph by Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova, Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 4.0.

	String of bananas	String of pearls
Scientific name	Curio radicans	Curio rowleyanus
Family	Asteraceae	Asteraceae
Light floor	Bright indirect	Bright indirect
Water	12–21 days	12–21 days
Humidity floor	20%	20%
Mature height	12–72 in	6–36 in
Habit	trailing	trailing
Growth rate	fast	moderate
Difficulty	Easy	Demanding
Toxic to pets	Yes	Yes
Typical price	$12–35	$12–35

Highlighted cells are where the two actually differ. Everything else they share.

The differences that matter

Mature size

String of bananas reaches about 72 inches; String of pearls tops out near 36. Buying the wrong one for a shelf means rehoming it in a year.

Difficulty

String of bananas scores 2 of 5, String of pearls scores 4. it looks unkillable and is not. The shallow roots rot within days in a deep wet pot, and by the time the strand shrivels the roots are already gone.

Which should you buy?

In a dim room, take either — both have a bright-indirect light floor.
If you forget to water, take either.
If it is your first plant, take String of bananas, at 2 of 5.
For a small shelf, take String of pearls, which stops around 36 inches.

Full entries

String of bananas — care fields with sources, toxicity with every authority consulted, propagation and diagnosis. String of pearls — the same.

Sources

This database's own care records for Curio radicans and Curio rowleyanus — every figure compared above.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Plants of the World Online — accepted names and families for Curio radicans and Curio rowleyanus
ASPCA Animal Poison Control — toxicity classification for both, cited on each species entry
Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, individually credited and licensed above

Compiled and edited by Tony Valcarcel · 2026-09-12
Every comparison above is drawn from a recorded field. Where the honest distinguisher is visual we show both photographs rather than describing a leaf we have no field for. How this is sourced.