From my perspective as a Clivia plant, the brown tips you see are often a distress signal related to my water intake. My roots are thick and fleshy, designed to store water, making me susceptible to rot if left sitting in saturated soil. Conversely, if the soil becomes completely dry, my roots cannot uptake the water I need. This inconsistent watering creates a physiological drought. Even if the root zone later gets water, the damage is done; the leaf cells at the furthest points—the tips—have desiccated and died, turning brown. Similarly, a buildup of minerals (like fluoride and chlorine often found in tap water) or excess fertilizer salts in the soil can create a toxic environment for my roots, preventing proper water absorption and leading to the same symptomatic cell death at my leaf tips.
My leaves are broad and designed to transpire efficiently in the dappled light and humid air of my native forest floor habitat. When placed in an environment with very low humidity, such as a room with air conditioning or heating, the rate of water loss from my leaves through transpiration exceeds the rate my roots can replace it. This causes the delicate cells on my leaf margins and tips to dry out and die first. Furthermore, exposure to extreme temperatures—either cold drafts from a window or excessive heat from a vent—can cause direct cellular damage. This thermal stress ruptures cell walls, killing the tissue and presenting as brown, scorched-looking areas on my most vulnerable leaf parts.
While I need bright light to fuel my growth and flowering, my leaves are not adapted for intense, direct sunlight. When positioned in a spot with too much direct sun, especially through a window that acts as a magnifying lens, the intense light literally cooks sections of my leaf tissue. This sunscald destroys the chlorophyll and the cells themselves, resulting in large, pale, or brown, crispy patches. The damage often appears on the areas of the leaf facing the light source and is a clear sign that I am receiving more solar energy than I can healthily process.
It is also important to distinguish distress from a natural process. As I mature and produce new leaves from my center, my oldest, outermost leaves will eventually begin to senesce, or age out. Part of this natural process can involve the tips of these oldest leaves slowly yellowing and then browning as I reallocate my energy and resources to new growth. This is typically a very slow process affecting only the lowest one or two leaves at a time, unlike the more rapid and widespread browning caused by the environmental stresses mentioned above.
