content of the article:
Popular rumor compares anthurium with flamingo, and its name is due to the similarity of inflorescence with tail. And the acquaintance of Europeans and Americans with representatives of a huge kind of anthuriums took place in the second half of the XIX century.
Even then, the Dutch became interested in the spectacular buds of Anthurium Andre, and in Hawaii, which became the second homeland of the inhabitants of the tropics of South America, the first industrial plantations were laid out, and selection work began.
Anthurium Andre( Anthurium andreanum)
Thanks to its spectacular flowering, this type of anthurium can be called the most famous in the world. Since the 70s of the last century, when the plants of this particular anthurium were in the hands of its discoverer, Anthurium Andrianum took one of the first places among pot plants and among plants intended for landscaping gardens and also grown for cutting.
Today, growers are offered a lot of varieties of Andre anthurium and unique hybrids that amaze the imagination with a variety of shapes, colors and sizes of inflorescences. The homeland of the species is the wooded mountainous regions of Colombia, where, at an altitude of approximately 2.5 km above sea level, the anturiums of Andre grow.
This plant, from 50 to 150 cm tall, leads the life of an epiphyte, for which its entire structure is adapted. The anthurium has a shortened juicy stem, on which long petioles of ovate, pointed leaves are tightly attached. Leafy plates are leathery, dense. The average sheet length is from 20 to 40 cm, and its width is almost two times smaller.
Like other epiphytes, Anthurium Andre, on the stem acquires a lot of aerial auxiliary roots, helping the plant to get food and moisture from atmospheric air. The species, according to the description of anthurium, is distinguished by long flowering. And the fact that many habitually consider the flower of anthurium, is its inflorescence, consisting of a veil or bract and cob, combining many small flowers.
The coverlet can be heart-shaped or oval in shape, its fabric, as in the photo of anthurium brown, leathery, with visible veins. On average, the bract can reach a length of 15–20 cm. Its width is somewhat narrower. As the flowers ripen, the bract is folded back, fully opening the light cream or yellow cob.
It is precisely because of the bright coverlet that the red anthurium was once seen among the tumult of tropical colors. But today, besides the varieties that delight flower growers, scarlet bracts, it is not uncommon plants with a variety of colors and cobs and covered. You can see white, pink and even black anthuriums. There are varieties and hybrids with fantasy colors, combining several bright colors at once.
After pollination of flowers on the inflorescence, berries of red or orange color are formed, inside of which there is a pair of seeds. True, since modern growers are increasingly growing non-varietal, but hybrid anturiums, seed propagation of culture gives way to vegetative methods. And on industrial plantations to obtain mass shoots using tissue culture.
This approach allows you to create and offer to lovers of exotic plants species of anthurium that are never found in nature. An example would be the anthurium with two bracts depicted in the photo or complex inter-specific hybrids with an unusual form of veil, miniature or, on the contrary, very large inflorescences.
Anthurium Scherzer( Anthurium scherzerianum)
A well-known florist variety of anthurium, at first glance paying attention to the oddly twisted elongated inflorescence. Scherzer's wild anthuriums were found in Guatemala and Costa Rica, where the plants were chosen by tropical rain forests at a level of one and a half thousand meters above sea level.
A perennial herbaceous crop lives on both forest flooring and large woody plants. The height of the adult specimen of the Scherzer anthurium reaches 30–40 cm. Like Andre’s Anthurium, this species has either a shortened trunk or is completely absent.
Wedge-shaped or pointed-elliptical foliage dense, saturated green color. The surface of the leaf plate, reaching 20–30 cm in length, is dull, dense to the touch.
Flowering can go year-round, but its peak is from February to July. Unlike the Anthurium Andrianum, the inflorescence is not straight, but curved, but in cultural forms and represents the appearance of a spiral. The cover is oval, less heart-shaped. In wild forms, both the ear and the bract are most often painted in red or scarlet tones.
The peculiarity of flowering of this species of anthurium is that due to the structure, plants can only transfer from one flower to another. The main pollinators in nature are insects. At home, where today Scherzer's anthurium is becoming more common, it is necessary to use manual methods of transferring pollen.
At the moment, many varieties and hybrids are bred with different color of inflorescences and the size of the plant itself. An example of this is the Amaretti anthurium depicted in the photo, a houseplant with unusual bracts full of bright red spots.
There are both tall varieties, forming a socket 60-centimeter height and small anthurium blooms with a diameter of plants less than 10 cm.
Anthurium Linden( Anthurium Lindenianum)
See in culture pink anthurium Linden is necessary not so often, but flowering of the variety onbeauty and duration is not inferior to the anthurium Andre or Scherzer.
Like many other species, this one lives in nature in Colombia, growing or under trees, on the moist, humus-rich soil of a tropical forest, or settling on the plants themselves, like a true epiphyte.
A fundamental difference of the species is the tetrahedral cross-section of the petioles and the beautiful, pointed-heart-shaped form of dense glossy leaves. On a sheet plate up to 30 cm in length, lighter, with olive tinges, are clearly visible. It is easy to distinguish young foliage on more bright juicy shade, adult leaves dark, leathery.
Unlike Andre Anthurium with a red bract, this species even in the wild forms an oval cover of a pure pink shade, narrowed to a pointed tip. On a high, up to 40 cm, peduncle, a straight, white or cream ear is formed. Flowering is accompanied by the spread of a pleasant smell.
It is interesting that this is one of the oldest varieties of anthurium cultivated by man, but it can be found not in home collections, but more often in gardens. In addition, Linden Anthurium is used to obtain interspecific hybrids.
Anthurium crystal( Anthurium crystallinum)
From 1875, it acquired the status of a cultivated plant and another type of anthurium - crystal anthurium, which lives in nature in many wooded areas of Peru and Colombia.
If descriptions of anthuriums have been given above, attracting the attention of beautiful flowering, then this species is distinguished by bright ornamental foliage, not inferior to the spectacular leaves of alokazy.
The maximum height of the stem of crystal anthurium at home is barely a meter, while the trunk is densely covered with the main property of the plant - velvety heart-shaped leaves. On which bright relief veins are brightly outlined. The length of the sheet plate varies from 20 to 40 cm, and its width is slightly less.
If young leaves can have a purple color, then with age the green color on them becomes richer and darker. The leaf cuttings are long, thin, hanging down. The back of the sheet is whitish or silver-green.
Although flowering, as in other types of home anthuriums, is very long, it cannot be called decorative or effective. Anthurium peduncles, as in the photo, reach a length of 40 cm and have a yellowish or pink-cream color. The veil is much smaller than the cob spreading the sharp aroma of the clove, and is sometimes difficult to distinguish. Its width is only 2 cm, and the length does not exceed 9 cm. The color is white, greenish or dull-purple.
Today, there are many hybrid forms of beautifully flowering and decorative leafy anthuriums, where crystal anthurium was used for crossing.
Anthurium Hooker( Anthurium hookeri)
Although the plant is rarely grown in room culture, it tolerates all domestic conditions and decorates any interior. In the wild, this species of anthurium can still be found on the Lesser Antilles, in the tropical forests of Suriname, Trinidad and in some areas of Guiana.
The diameter of the adult rosette shown in the photo of the anthurium is 150–250 cm, height is about 60 cm. The stem is poorly expressed, the leaves are large, elliptical, narrowed towards the base. On closer examination, a pattern of black tiny spots is visible on the leaf plates of a bright green hue. Compared with other types and varieties of anthurium, in this case the leaf stalks are very short and barely reach 4 cm in length.
Anthurium lazy( Anthurium scandens)
According to the description of anthuriums most often grown at home, these are plants that have virtually no real stem. But it turns out that there are exceptions.
This is often found in the collections of lovers of aoid anthurium climbing. The plant is a vine-like epiphyte, forming long shoots, covered with both oval leathery leaves and thick aerial roots. In the forests of Central and South America, such thick roots help him to climb not only on the trunks of trees, but also to be fixed on the rocks.
The flowering of the anthurium presented in the photo does not differ in decorativeness, but the ripening berries greatly decorate the anthurium. Unlike other members of the genus, which form orange or red fruits, the berries of climbing anthurium are white or purple. They are formed in place of a yellowish or green cob, slightly covered by a narrow green bract. Since flowering is almost constant, then on a pot plant you can see several small attractive tassels with berries.
Anthurium Wendlinger( Anthurium wendlingeri)
This is one of the most interesting types of anthurium, grown in the home and in winter gardens. The description of the anthurium Wendliger says that it is a large epiphyte, forming stems up to 20 cm long. The leaves are leathery, elongate-lanceolate, even green in color, attached to the stem with short petioles. The length of the leaf plate reaches 80 cm, and its width does not exceed 11 cm.
The distinctive feature of this anthurium species is its branching aerial roots, which are rival with foliage and have a green or brown color.
A long, twisted into correct spirals inflorescences-cobs and stipules give a special decorative effect to the plant. The length of the cob can vary from 13 to 42 cm, and its diameter is from 3 to 7 mm. Pale green or yellowish inflorescences stand out brightly against the background of dark foliage, but the bedspreads, also curled in a tight spiral, are not always visible. They are rather thin, elongated and painted in violet or purple tones. With a width of only about a centimeter, the length of the bract often does not exceed 11-15 cm. Such purple anthurium is difficult to use in cutting, but it will perfectly decorate the interior or the greenhouse.
