Money Tree – Feng Shui Symbol for Wealth & Abundance
Written by Zhao Mingde
Zhao Mingde studies Chinese cosmology and the classical texts behind the zodiac and feng shui. He trained in philosophy in Nanjing and spends most of his reading time in Han and Tang commentaries on the calendrical cycle. He writes to separate documented tradition from modern marketing.
"Money tree" is one of the most elastic names in feng shui. It describes a living houseplant with a braided trunk, and it also describes a small tabletop tree wired from tumbled stones with leaves cut to look like coins. The two objects share a name, a purpose and almost nothing else. This article is about what the name means and how the practice around it works. The companion piece covers the living plant — what it actually is, how the braid is made, and what kills it.
The symbol itself is easy to state. A money tree stands for growth that compounds: something small and tended that becomes larger over time. That is why the tradition associates it with steady accumulation rather than windfalls, and why it is usually placed where work happens rather than where money is stored. To see the range of objects the tradition reads this way, start with the money tree pieces themselves.
What the money tree stands for
The name is not ancient, and knowing where it came from makes the symbol easier to read. The story behind it is about a poor man who prayed for money, found the plant, and made his living by selling plants grown from its seeds. That is a story about propagation — about turning one plant into many — and it explains the association with multiplying what you already have rather than with sudden fortune.
The braid carries a second layer. Braiding the flexible stems of young seedlings is done by hand, and the practice began in Taiwan, where the braid was thought to lock in luck or fortune. The plant became popular there in the 1980s and was valued in feng shui for prosperity, which is how a wetland tree from Central and South America ended up as a desk ornament from Taipei to Toronto. Treat the braid as a piece of craft and a piece of meaning at the same time: it is a physical technique, and it is also the reason the object reads as "secured" rather than merely growing.
The two objects that share the name
Because the name covers two different purchases, it is worth being precise about which one you are buying.
| Form | What it is | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Living braided plant | A real tropical tree — Pachira aquatica — with several seedling stems plaited together. Needs light, water and a pot that drains. | Growth that is actually alive and actually changing. It can die, and looking after it is part of the practice. |
| Crafted tabletop tree | A hand-wired structure: a metal or wooden trunk, branches of beads or tumbled stones, and leaves shaped like coins or ingots. Usually under 30 cm. | A fixed form that needs dusting rather than watering. Suits a desk, a shelf or a spot with no natural light. |
Neither is the "real" money tree and neither is a substitute for the other. They are two answers to the same question — how much upkeep do you want the symbol to involve?
Where the tradition places it
This is the part of feng shui most often stated with false confidence, so it is worth getting the history right.
In the later compass-school readings of feng shui, the southeast is associated with wealth and with the Wood phase. The southeast is the Xun trigram in the Later Heaven arrangement of the bagua, and Xun belongs to Wood — which is why a tree, read as Wood, is so often recommended for that sector. What is worth knowing is that this mapping is a later, practitioner-level convention. The I Ching itself contains no such placement, and any account that attributes a fixed wealth position to a specific dynasty is inventing the attribution. Feng shui techniques trace partly to Neolithic China and were added to notably in the Han, Tang, Song and Ming periods; the fixed sector-to-life-area map is not in the early layers.
The practical exclusions are more stable and easier to apply. The tradition keeps a money tree out of bathrooms, off cluttered shelves and away from the direction of sharp corners or overhanging beams. In a small flat, the honest version of the rule is simply this: put it where you see it every day and where it is not in the way. A symbol you forget about does not do the psychological work a symbol is for.
The five-element framing, briefly
Money trees are usually discussed in terms of the five phases — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — and the cycles that link them. In the generating cycle, Wood feeds Fire, Fire produces Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal collects and purifies Water, and Water nourishes Wood. In the overcoming cycle, Wood grasps Earth, Earth contains Water, Water dampens Fire, Fire melts Metal, and Metal chops Wood.
A tree is Wood, so the interesting relationships are the ones immediately around it: what feeds it and what it acts on. Two corrections are worth making here. First, the five-phase system is not a Taoist doctrine — it was formulated in the second or first century BCE during the Han dynasty, and Zou Yan of the Warring States period matched the five powers to dynastic succession before that. It is a shared Chinese cosmology used in feng shui, astrology, alchemy, martial arts, divination and traditional medicine. Second, the system is a way of describing relationships, not a set of physical laws. It is a grammar, and you are allowed to find it useful without believing it is chemistry.
Activation: what the conventions actually are
Almost everything sold as an "activation ritual" is modern, but a few conventions are common enough to be worth knowing:
- State an intention when you place it. This is the core of the practice and it costs nothing. It is also the part with the most honest rationale: a stated intention is a reminder.
- Tie a red cord or ribbon at the base. Red is the standard accent across Chinese lucky objects, and a small ribbon is the least expensive way to mark a piece as deliberate rather than decorative.
- Put a coin or two beneath it. Traditional Chinese cash tied with red string is the usual choice. Coins appear throughout this family of objects.
- Keep it clean. Dust the branches of a crafted tree, wipe the leaves of a living one. A neglected symbol contradicts the thing it stands for.
The convention that a money tree should never be given away without a coin in return belongs to the same family of ideas. Follow it if you like; it is custom, not requirement.
How to read a tabletop tree before you buy
Crafted money trees vary enormously in quality, and most of the difference is visible in about ten seconds.
- Look at the "stones". Real tumbled stone has variation across a single bead and a slight waxy sheen. Dyed glass is uniformly saturated and, held to the light, shows a transparent core with a colourless or differently coloured rim.
- Press a branch tip. A good tree uses wire heavy enough to hold its shape against a fingertip. A cheap one springs limply, and the leaves fan out of alignment within a month.
- Check the trunk join. Where the branches meet the trunk there should be a wrapped or crimped finish that does not slip. Loose joins are what make a tree look tired after a year.
- Set it down. The base should sit flat and stay put. A tree that rocks will eventually be moved somewhere you do not look at, which defeats the point.
- Count the leaves per branch. Even, deliberate spacing means the maker planned the piece; random clusters with gaps mean it was filled in.
What the tradition does not claim
Two honest sentences. The tradition holds that a money tree expresses an intention about prosperity, and that placing one belongs to the same family of practices as keeping a wealth bowl or a toad. Nothing in the tradition says a wire-and-stone tree raises your income as a physical consequence, and any figure quoted for the effect of "feng shui decor" on anything measurable is advertising rather than evidence. The reason to own a well-made money tree is that it is a carefully built object with a specific history, sitting where you will look at it while you work.
To place one in the home, the feng shui range covers the wider set of symbolic objects, and the citrine crystal pieces are the closest match if you want the traditional yellow stone. If the motif suits your daily wear, the everyday jewelry range carries the same symbolism in small pieces.