I have a large bird's nest type anthurium in my atrium I acquired in Miami in 1998. For quite a long time we have thought the anthurium was Anthurium salviniae. However, a photo of Anthurium salviniae, as ID'd by the staff of Fairchild Tropical Gardens, was recently forwarded to me from Miami and the leaves do not match. Also, according to Dr. Tom Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the base of A. salviniae should have a fist-shaped cucullate (having the shape of a cowl or hood) cataphylls. Our plant does not appear to have one. So, after years of trying to find a name we're back to square one and searching for a name again. Obviously a member of section Pachyneurium, the leaves of our plant are thick, almost like thin cardboard and crackle when touched. They reach 5 to 5 1/2 feet and are almost 2 feet wide with thick ruffled edges. The leaves of our mature plant grow from the base to their full size in just 5 or 6 weeks. The plant is close to 8 feet from tip to tip. When the new leaves first immerge they are very shiny and reflect the sunlight almost like a mirror. But as the leaf matures the shiney effect subsides. The spadix (see photo of spathe and spadix) of our plant produces brilliant red seed berries with a spathe that recently has stood upright and is spear shaped but in the past has hung pendantly. The spadix will eventually get close to 1 inch thick and the seed berries form in September. In the past they were rarely fertile. At present it has two large spadix which are now forming berries. For the first time since we acquired the plant in 1998, in 2005 we were able to collect a very few viable seeds and are now growing a few small plants. One photo of this plant was recently ID's on the IAS ID website as Anthurium reflexinervium but the spathe (see my photo) does not match that plant in my opinion. It has in the past been ID'd as Anthurium tetragonum but I question that ID as well. I now have all of Dr. Croat's technical descriptions of Central American and South American section Pachyneurium anthuriums. I'm reading each carefully to attempt to find the correct identification. One note about the photo. This plant is surrounded on two sides by banana trees. I took the photo and put it in PhotoShop and removed the banana trees so the plant could be better viewed. The two leaves on the right were drawn in. The rest of the plant and the bench are as they actually appear in my atrium. Obviously, this plant is quite large. If you're an anthurium expert and and have seen this plant and spathe and believe you can ID it correctly I'd love to hear from you. By the way, some will be tempted to say it looks like Anthurium hookeri. It's not. I've got two large specimens of that plant. If you want to see a larger photo you can find it on my website by finding the Exotic Rainforest on the net. Thanks! Steve Lucas
hi lucas.i'm wahyu fery from indonesia..i'm interesting your anthurium reflexinervium....if i can collect this plan ....can i buy seed this plan...please email me feyex2000@yahoo.com phone +6281366330909
Seems lots of folks from Indonesia are interested in Anthurium reflexinervium. I receive several emails each week looking for that species. Regretably, that is one species of anthurium we don't have in our collection. The species I noted in the photo on this post was identified in October, 2006 by Dr. Tom Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden as Anthurium schtendalii. Dr. Croat personally examined leaves from our specimen and found it to be an unusual form of A. schtendalii with a "D" shaped petiole and leaves with an unusual morphology. Please note, the Exotic Rainforest is not a nursery. We offer very few specimens for sale, normally only extra plants grown in our collection. We are primarily collectors of rare species, largely aroids, and provide information to collectors. Please see this link for details: http://www.exoticrainforest.com/plantsofferedwithcare.html
