Hi I got this peace lily and Id like to know what kind is it, There are 2 flowers that are white and 4-6 that are green with white swirl. hope you can see them in the pics.
The flowers on my plant start out white then acquire the green as they age. I think this is normal for this plant.
Very difficult to tell without very detailed photos of the sexual parts of the inflorescence, both sides of a leaf blade, the stem, and other parts of the plant. The chances are high this plant is a hybrid since few true species are found in cultivation. Just last week I asked Dr. Tom Croat, curator of botany at the Missouri Botanical Garden about spathe color and he explained that most species begin green and then turn white. I have also observed some of our plants appearing to start white before turning green but chances are the growers paid no or little detailed attention to the color before the inflorescence opened which was likely green. The reason I inquired was I read some stories of people tha were supposely selling Spathiphyllum with purple and reddish inflorescences and I wanted to know if such colors occur in nature. Dr. Croat said they do not. Depending on where you check you'll see numbers ranging around 50 of the true species. Three Spathiphyllum species are from SE Asia but all the rest are native to southern Mexico, Central America and South America. Still, since they are raised for sale from tissue culture other than seeds it is very difficult to nail down a real name. There are also close to 200 hybridized plants so without a very expensive DNA test guessing that one is not likely to be correct. I have spent quite a bit of the last six months researching how Mother Nature grows these plants and most growers will be shocked to learn they grow in nature in very bright light standing in water. They will survive in dim light but the long term growth is doubtful unless the soil is specifically mixed and kept damp. The simple reason is plants survive via the production of sugars through their chlorophyll. Nature allows water and light to combine in the leaf blade to produce sugar and oxygen. The oxygen in given back to the environment but the sugar is used as a food source for th plant's survival. If kept in very dim light all the time it becomes more and more difficult to produce oxygen and sugar so the plant declines The other reason is were you do buy a really good professional light meter and do the math you would learn that a darkened corner of a living room has less than 5% of the light where these plants are normally found in nature. I realize all this is likely far more complicated than most growers want to understand so with the help of several scientists I have prepared an article that will take about 10 minutes to read. We did our best to explain everything so that all those growers that will wish to believe what I just tried to explain is "junk" can be exposed to the facts of Mother Nature. In time the plant is going to return to seasonal growth and will only produce inflorescences for bout three months a year. Although capable of producing inflorescences almost any time, most plants you buy are forced to bloom with a horticultural chemical that you are not likely to be able to use. Worse, if you found it and over use it the plant is easily harmed in the same way a drug addict is eventually seriously harmed by being increasingly over dosed. The link is here: http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Spathiphyllum Clevelandii pc.htm I have a group of these plants that now cover a four foot wide area and have been growing steadily for over 20 years. They are now in bloom so I hope to be able to photograph the plant again this week. With a little knowledge they can live a very long time but with improper potting they often die a slow death due to fermentation and the production of saprophytic pathogens in the soil. Steve
