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It looks unusually healthy, and this may be why

The leaves are almost too perfect: the same shade of green, the same firmness and very even veins and edges. Those details make it look more like a large artificial plant than an exceptionally healthy houseplant.

Photograph submitted by the reader

In the photograph, this looks like a large artificial indoor plant. The clue is not simply that it is ‘too perfect’, but that the leaves are unusually alike in colour, texture and posture, while the stems look very uniform and manufactured.

The leaf surfaces also have a fairly consistent fabric-like or plastic appearance, rather than the small variations usual in a living plant. The veins are pronounced but somewhat schematic, and the whole plant keeps the same upright appearance from top to bottom, with no signs of new growth, damage or natural variation.

To check in person, look where the leaves attach to the stems and feel the main stem. Artificial plants often show joins, fabric edges around the leaves or wire inside the stems. If there is no new growth and no real leaf attachment, that more or less settles it.

Sources and images 1
  1. Original reader contribution ↗Reader question
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