The short version: Giloy, also called Guduchi or Amrita, is a fast deciduous climbing vine with heart-shaped leaves and long thread-like aerial roots. It is grown from knobbly stem cuttings that can take one to four months to shoot. Give it warmth, a free draining mix and something sturdy to climb. Grow it as an ornamental only. It is a well documented cause of liver injury when taken as a supplement, so do not treat anything you grow as medicine.
Some plants arrive in the post looking like nothing at all. A Giloy cutting is a good example. It is a short, grey green stick covered in raised corky bumps, with no leaves, no roots and no sign of life. It looks less like a plant than a piece of coral that has been left in a drawer.
Give it warmth and time and it becomes one of the more striking climbers you can grow in a warm Australian garden. This is a guide to what the plant is and what it does. It covers where it will and will not grow here, and the one piece of safety information that matters more than any of it.
What is Giloy, and why do gardeners want it?
Giloy is Tinospora cordifolia, a climbing vine in the moonseed family, Menispermaceae, native to South and South East Asia. Australian gardeners usually meet it under one of its Indian names: Giloy, Guduchi, or Amrita, which in Sanskrit is the nectar of immortality. English-language references tend to call it the heart-leaved moonseed.
Most people who go looking for it have read about its long history in Ayurveda. That history is real and it is old, and it is the reason the plant has a following well outside its native range. It is not, however, a reason to eat it, and we come back to that below.
The horticultural case for Giloy is simpler and quite separate. It is a fast, unusual, good-looking climber with an odd growth habit. Not much else in an Australian garden looks like it.
What the plant actually looks like
Giloy is a deciduous twining climber that can run several metres in a season. It twines rather than clings, so it needs a trellis, a wire, a fence or an old tree rather than a flat wall.
The leaves are broad and heart-shaped, commonly around 7 to 15 centimetres long, on long stalks that let them hang and swivel in the breeze. Young stems are green and smooth with a swelling at each node. Older stems turn pale brown and develop the warty, knobbled surface that makes a Giloy cutting so distinctive in the hand.
Then there are the aerial roots. Mature vines drop long, thin, pale threads from their branches, sometimes metres of them, hanging down through the foliage like a curtain. It is the feature that sells the plant to most people who see an established one.
The flowers are a surprise too. They are small and greenish yellow, carried in short sprays, and the vine produces them while it is bare of leaves. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants. A single vine will flower happily, but it will not set its scarlet, pea-sized fruit unless a plant of the other sex is nearby. Because cuttings are clones of the parent, one order will all be the same sex.
The safety facts, plainly
This is the part to read before anything else. Giloy has a serious, well documented association with liver injury when it is taken as a supplement.
The United States National Institutes of Health maintains LiverTox, the standard reference on drug and herbal liver injury. It gives Tinospora its highest likelihood score, category A, meaning a well established cause of clinically apparent liver injury. More than fifty published cases have appeared since 2017. Many arrived during the pandemic years, when the plant was widely promoted as an immunity booster. The injury pattern is hepatocellular, and it can take anywhere from a few weeks to six months to appear. It is more frequent and more severe in people who already have liver disease. Some cases have been fatal.
There is a counter-argument in the literature that some of those cases involved a different species or other medications taken at the same time. That debate is not settled, and it does not change the sensible conclusion for a home gardener.
So: grow Giloy because you want an unusual climber. Do not brew it, eat it, juice it or dose yourself with it. Happy Valley Seeds sells this plant strictly as an ornamental, gives no preparation advice, and makes no health claim about it. If you are interested in herbal medicine, that is a conversation for a doctor or pharmacist, not for a seed shop.
How Giloy is grown: from a knobbly stick
Giloy is grown from stem cuttings rather than seed, and the knobbles are the reason it works. Every one of those raised nodes can push out a shoot or a root. That makes a length of mature stem a remarkably willing thing to propagate.
The method is undemanding. Bury about half of each cutting in a free draining, sandy mix, laid on a slight angle rather than standing upright. Water it once, then keep the mix barely damp. Wet, cold mix is the main thing that kills a cutting, because it rots before it roots.
What the method does demand is patience. Depending on how warm you can keep it, a cutting may shoot in a few weeks or take up to four months. A cutting can also die back above the soil and then reshoot from a node below the surface. A pot that looks dead in week six is not necessarily finished. Bottom heat and bright indirect light both help.
Where Giloy grows in Australia
Giloy is a warm climate plant. It is happiest in the tropics and subtropics, and it will do well in a sheltered temperate garden. In cold districts it is a container plant that comes under cover for winter. These are broad groupings. If you garden between two zones, or up in the hills, go by your own frost dates rather than the label.
- Tropical (Darwin, Cairns, Townsville). Year-round warmth suits it and it may hold its leaves through the year. Plant into the warm months with something solid to climb.
- Subtropical (Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour). The best fit of the lot. Plant in the ground from spring through to early autumn.
- Arid and semi-arid (Alice Springs, Broken Hill, Mildura, Kalgoorlie). Workable with steady water, afternoon shade and deep mulch. Plant in spring or early autumn rather than at the peak of the heat. Dry air troubles it more than dry soil does.
- Temperate (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Newcastle). Plant from late spring into summer, in the warmest and most sheltered corner you have, or keep it in a large pot. Expect it to drop its leaves and sit bare all winter, which is normal rather than fatal.
- Mediterranean (Perth and southern WA, Adelaide). Mild winters suit it well and the dry summer is fine if you water. Plant in spring.
- Cool and alpine (the Tasmanian highlands, Ballarat, Orange, Armidale, Stanthorpe). A glasshouse or sunroom plant here. It will not come through a cold, wet winter in open ground.
Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send Giloy cuttings to Western Australia, Tasmania or the Northern Territory. Rules for live plant material vary by state, so if you are unsure whether your address is affected, it is worth asking before ordering.
What to expect in the first year
Not very much, and then quite a lot. The first season usually goes into roots and a modest amount of top growth. The vine tends to get serious in its second spring, once it has something to draw on.
Feed lightly in spring, keep the water up through the growing season, and mulch the root zone. Cut it back hard in late winter while it is bare. That keeps it in bounds, and the prunings are how you make the next batch of plants. Aerial roots and flowers belong to an established vine, so they are a reward for the second or third year rather than the first.
Give it room. A happy Giloy is a big plant, and it will climb into whatever is standing next to it. That is worth a thought before you plant one against a good fence.
Giloy suits anyone who enjoys growing things that make visitors ask what on earth that is. It sits comfortably beside the other oddities in our guide to 10 unusual vegetables you can grow in Australia. Cuttings are listed with the rest of our edible produce planting stock, and there is more detail on the Giloy cuttings product page.
Get the cuttings
Fresh unrooted cuttings, taken from mature stems and sent wrapped to travel. Packs of 2, 4 or 10, sold as an ornamental garden vine. Cannot be sent to WA, TAS or the NT.
More growing guides
Frequently asked questions
Is Giloy hard to grow?
Not difficult, but slow to start. The cuttings need warmth, a free draining mix and patience, since shoots can take one to four months to appear. Once a plant is away it grows quickly and needs little attention beyond water and a sturdy support.
Can I grow Giloy in a pot?
Yes, and in temperate and cool districts that is the sensible way to do it. Use the largest free draining pot you can manage, give it a solid trellis, and move it under cover before the first frost.
Why has my cutting not done anything?
Most likely it is simply not warm enough yet. Cuttings can sit for weeks before a node moves, and some die back on top and then reshoot from below the soil. Keep the mix barely damp and warm, and wait out the full four months before giving up on it.
Is Giloy safe to eat or make into tea?
We do not sell it for that and we do not advise on it. Tinospora is listed by the NIH LiverTox database as a well established cause of clinically apparent liver injury. Please speak to a doctor or pharmacist rather than experimenting.
Will my vine produce those red berries?
Only if a male and a female plant are growing near each other, since the species carries male and female flowers on separate plants. Cuttings are clones, so a single order will all be one sex.
Does Giloy survive frost?
Young plants are frost tender and need protection. An established vine can take light frost in a sheltered position. It will not come through a cold, wet winter in open ground in a cool or alpine district.
Why can Giloy not be sent to WA, TAS or the NT?
Rules for moving live plant material across state borders differ, and our shipping policy excludes those three for live plants. Contact us before ordering if you are not sure whether your address is affected.