9 Low Light Succulents to Brighten Your Home and Office [With Pictures]

If you love plant and especially succulents, here is a list of the 9 best low light succulents that you can grow indoors.

low light succulents

Growing Low Light Succulents

In the pursuit to fill every corner of your house with succulents, your window space will eventually run out. It is then that succulents will begin to take over other rooms that are not blessed with sunlight.

If you choose not to get a grow light (like this one, for example), you still have options! Below are a lot of plants that don’t really care about lower light levels. Everyone will do well with any overhead light or ambient sun that enters the room.

9 Best Low Light Succulents

1. Snake Plant, Sanseveria trifasciata

are succulents good office plants

Also known as the mother-in-law’s tongue, the snake plant is the best indoor succulent. In fact, a friend of mine had found one of these in a closet before, still clinging onto life. It had apparently been there for a few weeks. That shows how little light this plant can survive with.

You can find snake plants in most offices around the world. They are everywhere because they are very difficult to kill; they even appear to thrive on neglect.

Caring for snake plants is easy: water them several times a month, then forget about them. They will survive in whatever light appears.

2. Jade Plant, Crassula ovata

are succulents good office plants

Another low-maintenance indoor plant is the jade plant. Similar to the snake plant, it is very easy to spot this everywhere, both indoors and outdoors. They can grow really big too; you may not even realize that a bush is actually a large jade plant until you see it from up close.

Jade plants can grow so huge because they are so resilient. They can recover from almost anything, mainly because of their woody stems. They can even bounce back from losing all of their leaves!. Many other succulents are not woody and lack the ability to bounce back from extended periods of neglect or abuse.

3. Bear Paws, Cotyledon tomentosa

shade succulents indoor

A somewhat unusual entry, but this Cotyledon really fits nicely into a list of succulents for indoors. The Bear Paws would still prefer direct lighting, but due to its unusual shape, it’s harder to notice the etiolation that goes with low-light succulents.

Also, Bear Paws is an interesting succulent, needless to say a good topic of conversation! How often do you come across a furry plant, not to mention one that you can safely pet?

4. Zebra Plant, Haworthia attenuata

low light succulents

This is an essential choice of any cubicle. The Zebra plant has an eccentric aesthetic that works alone or in groups. The sleek, eye-catching curves are a great addition to one of those geometric 3D printed flower pots (like the ones here).

5. Christmas Cactus, Schlumbergera

can succulents grow in dark rooms

Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter… whichever you have, all of this is taken care of primarily the same way. Many holiday cactus owners water it a little more often than they would normally water succulents. These plants thrive, because unlike other succulents, they come from the tropics and require more frequent watering that their cousins.

I’m not quite sure why, but every elderly person I’ve ever met grows one of these. You wouldn’t have to pay for one anyway – just ask your grandmother for a cutting.

6. Donkey’s Tail, Sedum morganianum

shade succulents indoor

Donkey’s tail is an incredible succulent because it adapts to many places. It is arguably the easiest trailing succulents to grow. This Sedum is also a good choice for low-light environments because etiolation is quite hard to detect on a vine.

7. Hindu Rope, Hoya compacta

hindu rope

The Hoya genus is one of the most unusual types of succulents due to the peculiar shape of its leaves.

Its curled leaves form around the stem of the vine and the stems grow long hanging from the pot. Each year, balls of small pink or white flowers appear from the stem.

Though not all Hoyas are succulents, the succulents in this family require a little more water when they grow. They develop best in warm and humid environments, because they are native to India.

These plants do not need direct light. In general they grow well in partial shade and only need protection from intense heat and frost.

8. Crown of Thorns, Euphorbia Milii

low light succulents

The Euphorbia Milii or Crown of Thorns, native to Madagascar, can flower all year round if provided enough light. It is a member of the genus Euphorbia which includes many ornamental plants. Spoon-shaped, long leaves emerge at the ends of the pointed branches.

The Crown of Thorns blooms best under direct sun, but it also adapts to medium light.

9. Aloe vera

aloe vera

Aloe vera is well known and can also be grown indoors. Its sap is used to heal burns and wounds on the skin. It also serves for a large number of dermatological diseases. We will place it in a place away from traffic so that nobody gets hurt with its hard and sharp thorns. Irrigation should be widely spaced. We will fertilize it a couple of times a year, except in winter, with a 10-10-10 type fertilizer.

Do Succulents Do Well in Low Light?

Besides the succulents listed above, most succulents need fair amounts of light in order to thrive.

Succulents stretch when they are not getting enough light. The first thing you will notice is that the plant begins to twist and point towards the light source.

Then, as the succulent continues to grow, it will become more spindly with widened space between its leaves. Usually in this case, the new leaves will be smaller and lighter in color. Prolonged periods of low light will also cause the succulent’s color to revert to green or fade away.

Can Succulents Grow in Dark Rooms?

As long as succulents receive the light they need, they will look better and continue growing in low light. They won’t be as healthy as they should be, but they usually take a long time (a year or two) to die in low light. If they are not receiving light at all i.e in dark rooms, they will obviously die much faster.

Are Succulents Good Office Plants?

Today, the light level in office is more common in the range 500 – 1,000 lux – depending on activity. For comparison’s sake, the minimum light requirements of succulents range from 300 – 10,000 lux. Obviously, by looking at the wide range, not all succulents can tolerate the low light conditions in the office. The ones that do are listed in this article.