Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Does anyone grow Anthurium hookeri?, 1 by ExoticRainforest

ExoticRainforest wrote:
Disclaimer: The author of this post does not claim to be a botanical expert. The quotes used are solely to provide information given to me from qualified and trained experts. Credits are given to the owners of scientific information where appropriate and that is the sole purpose of using their names. No attempt is being made to associate this author with these experts as a peer, only an interested grower. If the answers or remarks given do not appear to be accurate to you then feel free to attempt communiacation with the botanical sources via the International Aroid Society FACEBOOK account: http://www.facebook.com/pages/South-Miami-FL/International-A... since many gladly answer questions but prefer not to communicate via email.


Before you immediately say yes, you are growing Anthurium hookeri, please look at the photos and read the descriptions that will follow in this thread. The source of all this information is Dr. Thomas B. Croat, aroid botanist at the MIssouri Botanical Garden.

Despite the commonly held belief in Florida, Anthurium hookeri is not common and is even somewhat rare in nature. There is an "Anthurium hookeri" (a common name yard plant) and an Anthurium hookeri which is a species found on some of the Caribbean islands in the southeastern West Indies. It has also been observed in northern Venezuela and through the Guiana Shield in northeastern South America but is relatively rare in some of those regions.

The majority of plants sold in Florida are not the true species known to science as Anthurium hookeri but instead the common name plant. Seemingly, no one can give a good reason why almost everyone in Florida thinks they are growing Anthurium hookeri (common name) when they are not. Well known commercial aroid grower Denis Rotolante in Homestead offered the best reason I have been able to find, "As many nurserymen down here know, Anthurium hookeri is a catch all name applied to all bird nest type Anthuriums regardless of true taxonomic origins." Many of those hybrid plants sold in Florida are more closely related to Anthurium schlechtendalii or Anthurium plowmanii than to Anthurium hookeri.


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