Random plant event: Chamaedorea metallica flowers

This has actually been going on for a little while, but I'm only getting around to posting the picture now. The flowers on C. metallica aren't anywhere near as impressive as the flowers from C. seifrizii; I think they must take a long time to develop. The C. seifrizii at work are flowering again, but the flowers are berry-less and a weak-looking, pale yellowy-green, which makes me think that maybe they only turn orange and all that if they've been pollinated.

In any case. This is the second blooming for my C. metallica, which bloomed last winter right after I brought it home. I'd assumed at the time that it had gotten itself ready to go in the greenhouse before I bought it, and that it wasn't likely to bloom again, but then this winter it did, so apparently it just likes it here. (Strangely, the C. metallica at work, and the plants at the greenhouse where I bought this one, are not blooming. I'm not sure whether or not this means anything.)

Last year, I never got anything berry-like from the blooms. Or, well, I did, but they were shriveled from the start, sort of a pretty brick/rust color, and never did anything else. Also they might have been the actual flowers, not berries. Whatever they were, they fell off on their own after a while, and the flower stalk never changed color.

It's not pretty, I'll grant you. But it's still kind of neat.