Anthurium, or Laceleaf (Anthurium araceae)
Family: Bignoniaceae
Anthuriums are herbaceous epiphytes native to tropical America. Anthurium is a genus
of more than 800 species found in the New World tropics from Mexico to northern
Argentina and Uruguay.
The Anthurium is also known as Painted Tongue, Flamingo Flower (Flamingo Lily) or Tail
Flower. Anthuriums are grown for their brightly colored flower spathes and their
ornamental leaves. The red, heart-shaped flower of Anthuriums is really a spathe or a
waxy, modified leaf flaring out from the base of a fleshy spike (spadix) where the tiny real
flowers grow.
Thought to bring luck and protect against evil. Others connect it to magical fairies, who
were believed to sleep under the petals after they closed at sunset.
72 GASPARILLA ISLAND 2018 March/April