Anthurium Gracilis
 

Hey everyone,

I recently purchased an Anthurium Gracilis from ecuagenera for use in my large orchidarium. I was told it required good light, medium humidity and some air circulation.

Since It is more like an orchid than anything I figured Id give this a shot here. It is mounted on treefern, all the roots compacted in a crevice in the treefern background. It has already shot out two long "blooms" which are the berries, however it has lost 3 leaves, all slowly turning from dark green to yellow and falling off.

I want to stop this before the last 2 leaves fall, as this was pretty expensive and I dont know when I could get my hands on another one..

Thanks for any help or suggestions

Try cutting off the flower spike with the berries.

Why, you ask?

Because flowers, fruits, and seed take up a lot of energy to make.

Sucks for us to not see it, but sucks for the plant if it's already weakened and be weakened even more by producing energy expending flowers, fruits, or seeds.

This way you give the plant a chance to focus it's energy elsewhere, like making new leaves or new roots.

How are the roots anyways? Are they soggy and mushy.

How about the rhizome? What's going on with them?

I'm not an Anthurium guy, but I looked it up cause I was curious.

I think the correct scientific name of your plant is Anthurium gracile not Anthurium gracilis.

It is a lowland Amazonian rainforest plant and has a pretty wide distribution and does occur in Ecuador. Most of the accounts I'm reading about on-line deal with the Brazillian population.

So warm and humid is correct.

It is epiphytic.

Maybe it likes it shadier than what you've got it in. Anthuriums are typically shade plants from what I understand.

The roots originally came all wrapped up in sphagnum, and were really long. The way I mounted it was by clustering the root mass, which consisted of brown, softer roots that were then tucked into a crevice in the background.
This morning 2 more leaves turned yellow. I'm worried now, especially since I have been a super cheap and have been using regular compact florescant bulbs, so the shade issue can't be a problem. Should I maybe remove it, cut off all the dead roots and replant it?

I also wanted to understand the exact reason and explination to how the yellow leaves form. Something to do with photosynthesis no doubt, meaning that maybe the plant has another underlying issue?

Brown, softer roots are dead roots :(
Were there any whitish roots at all? :crossfing

Compact flourescents are still pretty strong lights. It really depends on the Kelvin rating, the wattage, etc.

You should shoot for a Kelvin rating of 5500 K. Depending on how large your enclosure is and how tall it is, I can't give you a wattage recommendation as of yet.

I may not grow orchids with lights, but I've grown corals, and I've had poison dart frogs with live plants. So there's some experience with artificial lighting.

I haven't read anything about cutting off the spikes. You really have to cut them off.

This is not something I made up.

In botany class, my instructor keeps saying flowers, fruits, and seeds are expensive for the plant to make.

To save the plant it's imperative you do it.

And yes soft mushy roots are dead roots and they should be removed. The roots should actually be left hanging exposed to the air and left on top of the mount. This is from all the pics I've seen and descriptions I've read.

Yellow is one of the major groups of natural pigments in a plant's leaves called carotenoids (you guessed it, carrots have these pigments in their roots - the part you eat). They are "hidden" by two other major pigments called chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b.

When a plant's chlorophyll a and b counts are reduced, the carotenoids start to be revealed.

There are other pigments too, but these are the major ones.

Chlorophyll - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carotenoid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Its mounted at the very top of my 24 inch tall tank, because the growth habit is supposed to have long pendant leaves.

I will remove it, cut off all the dead roots, remove the sphagnum so the remaining living ones ( if there are any) are exposed to the air and to the tree fern.

I will also cut off the bloom, despite how awesome it looks.


Thanks guys, I appreciate all the advice!

It's not uncommon for this plant to lose old leaves especially when moved to different growing conditions. This Anthurium is one of the few that need no pollinator to fertilize the flowers. Therefor it produces berries constantly and they grow easily from seed. It like it warm and can take many light levels. It like high humidity also especially if mounted. Normally when the stem of mine gets very long with no leaves, I just cut the top off and allow it to produce new roots. These things thrive on neglect and can be over watered. I also do not find this species to be particularly pendent so it may do better lower.

What do you mean by "cut the top off" ?

Im not sure if I should cut off the berries, or keep them considering you just said they can be planted to produce new plants