Sunday, November 16, 2008

Random plant event: Anthurium crystallinum 'Mehani' flower


Anthurium crystallinum 'Mehani' is, obviously, grown for the white-veined velvety leaves, rather than the flowers, which are so uninteresting that it verges on tragedy.

Still, even ugly flowers can be nice to see, if it means the plant's happy.


4 comments:

Hermes said...

Good to see it flowering though. not seen one before.

Melissa Gay Art said...

LOL-- "So uninteresting it verges on tragedy" is my new favorite phrase!

My "Hawaiian sunset" oncidium is about to flower again, so I am excited. My Spathyphyllum flowered, then my son promptly broke off the spike and announced, "Look. Corn!" :sigh:

Zach said...

Do you have one of these plants or did you just take a picture of one at the garden center? I'm considering buying one from ebay but not quite sure if I want to do it. Can you tell me more about it? (growing habit and preferences...)

mr_subjunctive said...

Zach:

I have one, and have had for two and a half years (plus a second smaller one I got in a trade, for almost as long).

Growth habit is basically as for the regular flowering Anthuriums: a slowly-elongating, stiff but not particularly thick stem, with leaves coming off of it on long petioles. The new leaves come in red and then turn green. The veins are not as prominent in the house as they were at the garden center.

There's a more recent photo here.

It's been an unexciting but undemanding plant; I don't think about it much. I've never had pest problems with it. It flowers about once a year but not at a predictable time. I give it filtered morning sun. The weirdest thing about it is that if the soil gets too dry while a new leaf is developing, the new leaf will develop tears and distorted shapes. (The "regular" flowering Anthuriums do the tear thing too, but not as much.)