All About Pendents!
It's no secret that I love strap leaf anthurium. Some of my first anthurium were pendants, and to this day I truly find them to be one of the coolest plants on earth. Long, narrow leaves growing upwards of over 6 feet, wendlingeri and pallidiflorum are up there with my favorites. While I do prefer the leather variety, there are also some waxy, velvet and subvelvet individuals I also collect and will document.
I started off with the more common variety, I grew my original palli from 3" leaves to now nearing over 3' leaves. I also have my original friedrichsthalii and wendlingeri. These are are varieties you can find online, or even in specialty nurseries. Despite the size of Seattle, I have only ever found friedrichstalli in stores, however. These have been easy going plants, preferring ambient to tents and cabinets probably for the airflow. Especially as they mature, their growth slows down to one leaf every 4 months give or take. However when young a leaf every 6 weeks seems to be average.
Grown in a variety of ways, I have them in self watering with a wick and chunky aroid soil, as well as denser mixes in no-drainage. Ranging from higher to low light, these are not finicky. I have let them dry out on occasion and they are quite resilient.
My largest wendlineri is about 3.5' and has put out one inflo that skipped the stigmatic fluid stage, I collected pollen for next time. Did you know not ALL wendli have corkscrew inflo? Some don't. Now you know. (mine does)
My largest palli is about the same size, with no flowers yet.
My fried is about matured size, or so I think, as its leaves do not size up in the same way as with palli and wendli, capping at about 2' long with thin lacey leaves. It gives me an inflow every single month. I am about inflo 9, however no female phase has developed yet, only pollen.
After dipping my toes into the tried and true, I ventured on to more specimens. I acquired vittarifolium and spectabile. My first vitta hated me, and I hated it. So she went into the trash can. I was later gifted a variegated vitta which I love, and the feeling is mutual. She is in some of my chunkiest mix that is essentially straight coco husk and perlite as that was all I had at the time. She seems to love it, with very thick leathery leaves, high variegation, and putting out leaves once a month or so. Only thing I noticed is the leaves are not very long, most are barely 1' in length. But she fits the spot she is in well, so I can't complain.
I started off with several spectabile after coming across them randomly on the internet. I kept a matured specimen that I am absolutely in love with. The way their leaves unfurl is mesmerizing and it takes over a month for the leaf to fully harden off and expand. She has given one inflo, but aborted shortly after. After experimenting with several setups and locations, I have her in chunky soil and self watering with a wick next to my west facing window with filtered direct sun in the evening. I am hoping she gives another inflo after this latest large leaf.
I acquired several more strap leaf in succection of one another. Yasuni, morona, pallidiflorum guazhalan, and NSE lavender berry all came in from a variety of both seed grown and imported plants. Yasuni are known to have thin, lacey leaves with a soft texture. I accidentally mutated mine under high light, causing the leaves to widen, warp, and washboard in strange ways. I moved it to a darker spot and its newest leaf seems much more normal. The palli 'guazhalan' doesnt have clear lineage unfortunately. It is quite different from the standard palli, with lance-shaped leaves that narrow at the geniculum (something like a wrist for the plant that is part of the petiole). It is possible it comes from the locality in ecuador, but it is unlike any other palli or pendens otherwise. Totally unique in its own way with very dark leaves.
One species in particular I am unsure on whether to classify it as a pendant or strap leaf. Anthurium sp limon was gifted to me, and is a vine/climbing anthurium. I placed it on a moss pole above my shrimp tanks in ambient, and I have to say, I was NOT expecting it to thrive. It has a very thin, waxy leaf with bumpy corrugated texture. Its leaves size up as it climbs, and I really really enjoy this plant. I would have thought that due to its structure, it would only thrive in high humidity, but it seems like that is not the case. I can't wait to see what an inflo on this one looks like.
The morona has been another slow grower. But then again I have it in the darkest window in the house so that may be why. Nothing to note of this plant so far. They are said to be quite wavy and ribbed when mature, and can make quite the statement.
The NSE lavender berrys were from NSE, and originally thought to be sp pendens but produced lavender berries (which I guess pendens make a different color berry). NSE sold their batches of seeds out and now some growers have them available. They look nearly identical to my pendens. They grow a leaf every 5 minutes at this stage of juvenile. I fear my life.
This month at PlantCon international, I procured a few more strap leaf anthurium. Lets name them all shall we?
Anthurium yasuni (yes I needed another one)
Anthurium ceroni
Anthurium indanza
Anthurium lutheri
Anthurium macphersonii
Anthurium punctatum
Anthurium ceronii x waroqueanum
Anthurium pendens
and this one I guess is also a pendant
Anthurium waroqueanum
Along with a few I missed that I already had, rupicola, lancifolium, and sp limon (which IDK if that is technically a pendant or not) we now have, lets see now... 1, 2, 3... a lot of very nice long leaf plants!
I have essentially all my pendant anthurium in ambient western WA conditions. In the summer is ranges from 55-65% and winter 35-45%. Since many of these are new, we will see how they fair.
Only the waroqueanum (which I have had several and they are low-key not fussy for me) and lutheri which both live in my tents. I have heard lutheri are difficult and climbers. Mine is already quite large. I plan to maybe hang it upside down in the tent for now and then try to bring it into ambient after I see if it likes me or not.
Most of the recently acquired plants are young adult age with plenty of maturing to go before their first inflos, I would imagine. Since so many of these have little documentation and even less breeding in captivity, I am very curious to see what I can work with. I am especially interested in breeding the indanza, pallidiflorum, punctatum and NSE lavender berry. My ultimate goal is to record and create a strap leaf supremacy capable of mass producing healthy beautiful plants. I love these plants, and I want others to love these plants.
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