The Money Plant (Pachira aquatica) with its distinctive braided trunk and five-leaflet leaves is used worldwide in feng shui to attract wealth, good fortune, and financial abundance.
The Money Tree (Pachira aquatica) originates in the swamps of Central and South America, where it grows naturally as a large tree. Its association with luck and wealth began in Taiwan in the 1980s, when a truck driver began braiding multiple small Pachira trunks together and growing them in a single pot. The resulting plant — with its braided trunk and large palmate leaves, each with five leaflets — became enormously popular in Taiwan and quickly spread across East Asia and eventually worldwide as a feng shui wealth plant.
The five-leaflet leaves of the Money Tree are significant: in Chinese cosmology, five represents the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), and the five-fingered leaves suggest the hand reaching out to gather wealth. The braided trunk (traditionally three or five individual plants twisted together) symbolizes strength through unity and the gathering of multiple streams of income into one abundant whole. The number of trunks in the braid carries meaning similar to lucky bamboo — three for luck, five for the five elements.
Money Trees are popular gifts for business openings, housewarmings, and new year celebrations across Asia and increasingly globally. They are low-maintenance, attractive, air-purifying, and believed to continuously generate prosperity energy as long as they are healthy and well-cared-for.
Financial abundance, multiple streams of income, the gathering of wealth through unity of purpose, prosperity, and the feng shui activation of the wealth area.
Place a Money Tree in the southeast corner of your home or office (the feng shui wealth area) to activate financial luck. Tie a red ribbon around the base of the pot to further activate the wealth energy. Care for the plant attentively — healthy plants generate healthy wealth energy, and neglect can reverse the flow.
Money Trees (Pachira aquatica) are also excellent air purifiers — NASA's Clean Air Study identified them as effective at removing benzene, formaldehyde, and toluene from indoor air, meaning your wealth charm is also actively improving the air quality of your home.
Five braided trunks is most traditional, representing the five elements. Three is also lucky. Avoid four (unlucky in Chinese tradition due to phonetic similarity with 'death' in Chinese). Seven and eight are also considered auspicious numbers.
The southeast corner of your home or office is the feng shui wealth and abundance sector. Alternatively, place it near the entrance to your business to attract prosperity as people enter. Keep it away from the bathroom or bedroom.
Like lucky bamboo, a dying Money Tree is often interpreted as having absorbed negative energy on your behalf. Replace it promptly with a new, healthy plant rather than dwelling on the loss.
China / Southeast Asia
Lucky bamboo is the most popular feng shui plant in the world, used in Asian homes and businesses to attract wealth, health, and positive energy through its symbolism of resilience and rapid growth.
Arabian Peninsula
Aloe vera has been used as a healing plant, protective household charm, and good luck talisman for over six thousand years, believed to ward off negative energy and bring health and prosperity to the home.
Mediterranean / Middle East
Evil eye candles combine the ancient protective power of the evil eye symbol with the purifying and blessing energy of candlelight, creating a powerful ritual tool for clearing negative energy from home and spirit.