International Aroid Society

I used to see a lot of the deformed leaves/spathes or spathes/ leaves when hormones were used to induce flowers on the spathiphyllum plants. The current hybrids are a little less seasonal in their blooming so there is less need to use hormones but the hormone are still used in springtime when there is greater need for plants in bloom.

Anthurium andreanum hybrids produce flowers on each new leaf axil once the plant is mature and the growing conditions are right (light, Water, fertilizer, temperature etc.) No need to hormones induce them to flower are needed. So you should not see any funky leaves/spathes except on certain cultivars that are prone to such problems. The Anthurium Andreanum varieties will not produce pollen until the night temperatures drop consistently into the low 60’s while the flowers are in the early stages of development.

Denis

Silver Krome Gardens

Homestead Florida

From: aroid-l-bounces@www.gizmoworks.com [mailto:aroid-l-bounces@www.gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of Jason Hernandez
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 2:48 PM
To: aroid-l@www.gizmoworks.com
Subject: [Aroid-l] Spathe-Like Leaves

Lately I have been noticing something odd about the Spathiphyllum in Lowe's. The leaf nearest the inflorescence will often be partially white whilst all other leaves are the normal green. In one particularly extreme case, the plant had one completely white leaf subtended by a tiny, perfect inflorescence.

Yesterday, I saw the same thing on one of those new mahogany-orange Zantedeschia cultivars: the plant had one perfect inflorescence, one inflorescence in which the spathe was open, exposing the entire spadix, and one leaf that was normal except for streaks of the spathe color. All other leaves were normal solid green.

I also noticed, however, that the pink-spathed Anthuriums in the same Lowe's store do not do this; they all had normal leaves and inflorescences, with no sign of intermediates. Is this phenomenon the result of something in the commercial production techniques, that affects only certain genera?

Jason Hernandez

Naturalist-at-Large