Plant Name

Scientific Name: Anthurium andraeanum

Common Names: Anthurium, Flamingo-lily, Flamingo Flower, Oilcloth-flower, Tail Flower

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Herb/Forb

Hawaii Native Status: Cultivated. This ornamental garden plant and houseplant is native to Colombia and Ecuador.

Flower Color: White, Yellowish. The much more conspicuous floral spathes are red, pink, green, white, cream, or multicolored.

Flowering Season: Year-round

Height: Up to 3 feet (0.9 m) tall

Description: The tiny flowers are on a slender, finger-like or tail-like spadix above a very shiny, waxy, colorful, crinkled, heart-shaped spathe. The flowers are sometimes followed by small, fleshy berries. The leaves are large, glossy dark green or even black in some varieties, leathery, alternate, and oblong-heart-shaped to arrow-shaped. The plants are epiphytes but can be grown in loose rock, bark, and fiber soil mixtures.

Here in Hawaii, Anthuriums are grown in shady, humid tropical gardens or grown commercially for export and cut flowers. The showy inflorescences make very long-lasting cut flowers in tropical flower arrangements.

Special Characteristics

Poisonous – The plants are poisonous and contain calcium oxalate crystals, which can cause severe mouth irritation and swelling if ingested.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Subclass: Arecidae
Order: Arales
Family: Araceae – Arum family
Genus: Anthurium Schott – laceleaf
Species: Anthurium andraeanum Linden – flamingo-lily