The Dracaena species known as snake plants or mother-in-law's tongue were until recently considered a separate genus, Sansevieria, but have been reclassified following molecular examination.

Mother-in-law tongue, or snake plant, is a popular  houseplant, easy to grow, although slow. There are numerous species that fall into two main categories: tall-growing plants with stiff, erect, lance-shaped leaves; and dwarf-growing rosette forms. Flowers, which appear only erratically, are whitish or yellowish, narrow-petaled, in clusters on a erect spike and often fragrant.

A snake plant can flower if it has the excess energy to do so or as a strategy if it has no where left to grow. Your snake plant is most likely to flower if it has ideal care, generous access to sunlight and the environmental conditions happen to favor it. In a winter or early spring with very little rain or cloudy skies, a snake plant is more likely to flower. It is hard to provide enough sunlight in the home and your plant may need a move outdoors in the summer. A plant that has good growing conditions but is very pot bound might also bloom. In that case, the plant needs to be so pot bound that there is literally no space for new shoots to emerge out of the soil (this may happen naturally in the center of a congested plant which isn't fully pot bound yet). With absolutely no where left to grow you might get the plant trying to propagate itself by seed, i.e. through the elusive flowers.

You can find a photo of a snake plant blooming and more information on care in our Guide to Snake Plant Care.

Courtesy of NYBG Plant Information Service