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There is
a new plant that really famous now
adays. We can see this plants in every
nursery shop. And the price is also very
expensive. It is Anthurium. It comes from
family of Araceae, is a large genus of about
600- 800 (possibly 1,000) species, belonging
to the arum family (Araceae). It is the
largest and probably the most complex genus
of this family. Many species are undoubtedly
not described yet and new ones are being
found every year.
They grow in the most diverse habitats,
mostly in wet tropical mountain forest of
Central America and South America, but some
in semi-arid environments. Most species
occur in Panama, Colombia, Brazil, the
Guiana Shield and Ecuador. According to the
work of noted aroid botanist Dr. Tom Croat
of the Missouri Botanical Garden, this genus
is not found in Asia. It is solely a
neotropical genus found in Mexico, Central
America and the West Indies. Some species
have been introduced into Asian rain
forests, but are not endemic.
Anthurium grows in many forms, mostly
evergreen, bushy or climbing epiphytes with
roots that often hang from the canopy all
the way to the floor of the rain forest.
There are also many terrestrial forms as
well as hemiepiphytic forms. A hemiepiphyte
is a plant capable of beginning life as a
seed and sending roots to the soil, or
beginning as a terrestrial plant that climbs
a tree and then sends roots back to the
soil. They occur also as lithophytes. Some
are only found in association with arboreal
ant colonies or growing on rocks in
midstream .
The stems are short to elongate with a
length between 15 and 30 cm. The simple
leaves come in many shapes. Most leaves are
to be found at the end of the stem. They can
be spatulate, rounded, or obtuse at the
apex. They may be erect or spreading in a
rosette, with a length up to 40 cm. The
upper surface is matted or semiglossy. The
leaves are petiolate. In drier environments,
the leaves can take a bird's-nest-shape
rosette that enables the plant to collect
falling debris, thus water and natural
fertilizer. Terrestrials or epiphytes often
have cordate leaves. Some grow as vines with
rosettes of lanceolate leaves. Some species
have many-lobed leaves.
The flowers are small (about 3 mm) and
develop crowded in a spike on a fleshy axis
and called a spadix, a characteristic of the
arums. The flowers on the spadix are often
divided sexually with a sterile band
separating male from female flowers. This
spadix can take on many forms (club-shaped,
tapered, spiraled, and globe-shaped) and
colors (white, green, purple, red, pink, or
a combination).
The spadix is part of an inflorescence.
The outer portion of the inflorescence is
known as the spathe. Some people like to
call the spathe a "flower",
however it is simply a modified leaf. The
spathe may be a single color (yellow, green,
or white) or possibly multicolored including
burgundy and red. That sometimes colorful,
solitary spathe: a showy modified bract that
can be somewhat leathery in texture. There
are no flowers on the spathe as is sometimes
thought. The flowers are found solely on the
spadix. The spathe can vary in color from
pale green to white, rose, orange or shiny
red (such as A. andrenaum). The color
changes between the bud stage and the
anthesis, (the time the flower expands).
Thus the color might change from pale green
to reddish purple to reddish brown.
The flowers are hermaphrodite,
containing male and female flowers. The
fruits are usually berries with one to
multiple seeds on an infructescence that may
be pendant or erect depending on species.
The flowers of Anthurium give off a
variety of fragrances, each attracting a
variety of specific pollinators.
Several species are popular in the
florist trade as pot plants or cut flowers
and for interior decoration. They include
forms such as A. crystallinum f peltifolium
with its large, velvety, darkgreen leaves
and silvery white venation. Most hybrids are
based on A. andreanum or A. scherzerianum
because of their colorful spathes.
Sources: from wikipedia
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