TopTropicals Plant Catalog

This catalog is for information only. If you don't see the price - the plant is not for sale.

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Epiphytic plant with long pendant, very narrow, succulent and channeled leaves deep green with gray scurf and spiny; inflorescence on reed like stems bearing red cone like fruit. A clumping plant that’s great for a hanging basket. Drought-tolerant; suitable for xeriscaping.

The Aechmea is very diversified, hardy, extremely popular, and very easily cultivated in the bromeliad family group. They range in sizes from a very tiny 6 inches, to more than 10 feet in height and 6 feet in diameter. Their foliage colors vary from lime green, yellow, red, burgundy, and black, and incorporates many patterns, spots, stripes, bands, silvering, shadings, and blotches. These patterns often vary form the top of the leaf to the bottom of it. The Aechmea family has large inflorescence and brightly colored, long lasting bracts that holds the magnitude of tiny flowers. Often the colorful berry-like fruits mature for a long time on the flower spike. It´s a very healthy, cold and rot resistant plant to grow outdoors fixed in trees, walls, or, in pots in an orchid mix.

Adult plants need a sunny position to become red in the blooming period. In a luminous shade it flowers, but the leaves remain green. The rose bracts persist a long time, and if flowers are pollinated black pointed fruits will appear as shown in the picture. It's curious because, when the plant grows in very shaded locations the leaves become very long, to the point to seem a completely different plant and very elegant indeed, with no weak aspects. However, if it is gradually moved to full sun it blooms and the leaves become red. See Bromeliad page.

Epiphytic, scandent shrub with branches to 10 m long or sometimes terrestrial with arching branches.

There are hundreds of species of this genus, all members of the Araceae family. The majority are fairly nondescript and a few are grown for their handsome foliage. There are only two species which are generally grown for their flowers, Anthurium andreanum and Anthurium scherzerianum. Both types are basically epiphytic and grown best in a mix of bark, perlite and fern fiber such as that used in orchids or bromeliads. They will grow in soil but rarely perform well in that medium. Anthurium andreanum is the florist anthurium, a plant with red, white or pink spatches which have an artificial, plastic-like look. Give a moderately high light intensity but avoid direct sunlight during the spring and summer months when the sun is most intense. A high humidity is essential as is warm temperature, 70-75 days, 65 minimum at night. The potting mixture should be kept moist, but not soggy during the spring- summer period and allowed to dry slightly between waterings from late fall through winter. A feeding of weak manure water and a fish emulsion may be given every two weeks from late winter to mid summer.

Both species have a tendency to grow up out of the pot. The exposed aerial roots should be wrapped in moist sphagnum.

When the plant is eight inches or higher out of the pot it may be cut off at the base and repotted in fresh potting mixture. Plants will occasionally split and form pups. These can be divided when large enough. Plants are also propagated by stem cuttings and seed, both of which are extremely difficult without greenhouse facilities.

Real Hawaiian lava rock is hand selected to provide a happy home for Anthurium. With reasonable care your volcano bonsai should last for years. Place in a bright window or on a countertop without direct sun and just keep a small amount of water in the saucer/tray provided. Requires consistently moist soil.

See Photo Gallery of Exotic Anthuriums.

Epiphyte, stems less than 10cm long, 1.5cm diam.; roots moderately slender; leaf are 1.7cm wide; cataphylls coriaceous, 3-6cm long, acuminate at apex, drying brown, persisting as fibers. Leaves erect to spreading; petioles 11-17 cm long, to 5mm diam., subterete to sharply sulcate; blades narrowly elliptic-lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, 19-55cm long, 8-9 cm wide, broadest at middle, acuminate at apex, narrowly rounded at base; upper surface matte, lower surface paler and matte with reddish-brown glandular punctations; midrib convexly raised below.

Erect inflorescence of pale yellow-green spathe with red tinged margins on some clones. Spadix colour is white. Berries are red with pointed apex.

This species is one of the most popular.The species is known from Guatemala to Colombia in wetter parts of tropical moist, premontane wet, and tropical wet forest at elevations from sea level to 660 m. In Panama, the species ranges to 1,000 m elevation.