📷 Alejandro Bayer Tamayo from Armenia, Co / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Field Guide · Stromanthe
The Marantaceae all fold their leaves at dusk, but Stromanthe gives itself away in the petiole, the panicle, and the way it clumps.
The cultivar most people meet first, and still the one worth owning. Lance-shaped leaves stack pink, cream, and deep green on top with magenta undersides that flash when the foliage folds upright at night. Give it warmth above 65°F and steady humidity and it will throw a loose clump two to three feet wide. The variegation is genuinely stable, not a reverting chimera, which separates it from most variegated Goeppertia on the market.
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