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New: Understanding, pronouncing and using Botanical terminology, a Glossary Anthurium watermaliense Hort. ex L.H. Bailey & Nash
Anthurium watermaliense Hort. ex L.H. Bailey & Nash
Common name: Black
Anthurium
All data was taken from
the published works of Dr. Thomas B. Croat
Ph.D., P.A. Schulze Curator of Botany
of the Missouri Botanical Garden
in St. Louis, MO in his Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 1983, Volume 70, #2
Although published in horticulture, on scientific sources
Anthurium
watermaliense often appears to be only a
natural
hybrid. The name is valid in horticultural
literature but not on some
scientific sources. The Royal Botanic Garden Kew's International Plant Names Index (IPNI)
International Plant Names Index
does not
recognize the name as a published
![]() The aroid is very common in Costa Rica and Panama and grows terrestrially in the soil. Anthurium watermaliense has been noted to also have been collected in Colombia but appears to be uncommon in that country.
Anthurium watermaliense
is easily recognized by the following characteristics taken from a
synopsis of the species by Dr. Croat,
"Anthurium watermaliense is an atypical member of section
Pachyneurium and is not generally confused with any other
species in Central America. It can be recognized by the
ovate-triangular to sub-3-lobed leaf blades, the broad, frequently
dark purple spathe, green to purple, stipitate spadix with long-exscrted
stamens, and yellow to orange berries."
"Stiputate
spadix" refers to a relatively unusual stalk not seen in all
Anthurium species known as a stipe. The stipe separates
the spathe and spadix and is helpful in recognizing the species. A more detailed
explanation follows along with photos to point out the location of
the stipe.
The nomen "watermaliense" comes from the name of the city Watermall, Belgium where
Anthurium watermaliense was first taken after collection,
reportedly in Colombia. The horticultural name (Hort.)
Anthurium watermaliense
was published
in 1914 by Liberty Hyde Bailey Jr. (1858-1954) in his Cyclopedia of
American Horticulture, a non-scientific publication.
A naturally variable specimen, Anthurium watermaliense
is commonly known by the name "Black Anthurium" due
to
the deep coloration of its dark purple
inflorescence, not the color of the foliage. There is also another
Anthurium known by the common name "Black
Anthurium" which is a different species, Anthurium
cabrerense. A. cabrerense is a cool-growing
Anthurium
from the high Andes of Ecuador and the spathe of A. cabrerense
is a bit darker than that of A.
watermaliense
but both have
that same purple-brown coloration that almost looks black in the
correct light.
Placed in
Anthurium
section Pachyneurium, the group of Anthurium
species which includes all the
"bird's nest"
![]() In 2005 Dr. Croat responded to a question on the aroid forum Aroid l regarding the section placement of Anthurium watermaliense, "I have placed this in Section Pachyneurium owing to its involute vernation but it is an unusual member of that group for sure. I have often wondered if it might not be itself of hybrid origin." Dr. Croat then continued, "There are about a half dozen of these cordate odd balls, A. standlyi, A. schottii, etc. Some are quite attractive." Cordate is a reference to the heart shaped leaf and involute vernation refers to the way both margins (edges) of a new leaf blade are rolled inward similar to two tubes as it begins to emerge from the cataphylls which protect any newly emerging leaf blade.
Vernation simply indicates the coiled arrangement of young leaves as
they emerge. My good
friend and aroid expert Leland Miyano in Hawaii explains further,
"When Dr. Croat points out the possibility of a hybrid origin and
the biogeography of Anthurium watermaliense, there is a Panamanian
Anthurium in the section Pachyneurium that can have a deep, black
purple spathe (this feature is variable to clone). That species is
Anthurium luteynii, a Panamanian endemic. I am not implying
any parentage...but one has to find a genetic source of this dark
purple spathe within the geographic range of wild populations of
Anthurium watermaliense if it is indeed of hybrid origin.
Also, as Dr, Croat points out, it is unusual to have cordate species
within the section Pachyneurium. Anthurium luteynii, is a birds nest
form, not cordate at all."
An aroid, all
Anthurium species reproduce via the production an
inflorescence. The primary parts of the inflorescence
(see photo left,
below) are the
spathe and spadix. The
entire inflorescence of Anthurium watermaliense stands
erect
on a
stalk known as the peduncle which is dark purple-violet in color.
The spathe is normally a dark purple-violet but may also be green
tinged with purple depending on the stage of development. The
spathe possesses a lanceolate-triangular shape (lance-shaped
somewhat resembling a triangle) and is reflexed or turned back as
well as twisted. The spadix
![]() Leland explains further, "In looking at the detail photos of the inflorescence, notice that the spadix is stipitate. In other words, the spadix is supported by a stipe...the bare portion below the flowers and above the spathe. In the section Pachyneurium the presence of a distinct stipe is rather rare so it is a good feature to point out." In the case of Anthurium watermaliense the stipe emerges white but soon darkens to match the color of the peduncle. When an Anthurium is "in flower" the reference is to sexual anthesis at which time the spadix produces tiny male, female and sterile male flowers that grow on the spadix. The spathe itself is a modified leaf and is not a "flower". The spadix may be purplish when young but typically turns green to yellowish green or tan-white tinged purple-violet as it ages (see photo below). The spadix vaguely resembles an elongated pine cone and when mature both the spathe and spadix turn so dark in color they appear black, thus the common name "Black Anthurium". The spadix is a spike on a thickened fleshy axis which can produce tiny flowers.
During sexual anthesis the tiny male flowers produce pollen and the very small female flowers become receptive to pollination, however, most aroids are cleverly divided by nature to keep the aroid from becoming self-pollinated. The female flowers reach sexual anthesis first and once they have completed the process the male flowers begin to produce pollen. Nature's preferred method for pollination is to have insects (almost always a beetle from the genus Cyclocephala) to collect pollen from a plant of the same species at male anthesis and carry it to the female flowers of another specimen of the same species at female anthesis in to keep the species strong. Once pollinated the spadix produces berries which in the case of Anthurium watermaliense are ovoid to obovoid in shape and yellowish to orange when mature and will contain the seeds of the Anthurium. For additional information on aroid sexual reproduction please refer to this link: Aroid pollination ![]()
All Anthurium species also possess a
collective vein which runs near the margin (edge) of the leaf blade.
(see photo, top of page)
Collective veins arise
in pairs on each side of the leaf vein and are simply the union of
part of all of the primary lateral veins that extend all the way to
the apex (end or tip) of the blade. Collective veins are
submarginal vein (not touching the edge) that lie parallel as well
as near the leaf margin (edge). The primary lateral veins run
into the collective vein which may be a continuation of a primary
lateral leaf vein (often the lowermost or the uppermost basil
veins). Collective veins may be observed in Anthurium,
Syngonium, Alocasia, Colocasia, Xanthosoma, Pycnospatha, Arisaema,
Protarum, and some Amorphophallus and other genera
but are never found on a Philodendron species.
Every leaf of an Anthurium is supported by a petiole (photo, right). The petiole is the stalk that attaches the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole extends upward and outward from a node on the stem to the point where it joins with the leaf blade. The petioles of Anthurium watermaliense are terete (rounded) to just less than rounded, may be very slightly speckled and slightly flattened as well as canaliculate on the adaxial (upper) surface (photo, right). Additionally, the petioles are weakly sulcate. Sulcate indicates either a canal known as a sulcus or having numerous fine parallel grooves running parallel along the petiole and canaliculate indicates a channel running the length of the petiole.
At the very top of the petiole
(see photo below) is found a "swollen" knee-like organ
common to Anthurium species known as
the geniculum.
Aroid
expert Julius Boos explains further regarding the purpose of the
geniculum,
"
the geniculum acts like a
''wrist'' and actually allows the leaf blade to turn or rotate to align
itself with the light source and occurs only on some aroid genera
including Anthurium and Spathiphyllum but not on others."
In
Anthurium watermaliense the
geniculum is also narrowly sulcate (grooved).
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Anthurium species are
known to be highly variable and not every leaf or inflorescence of every specimen
of Anthurium watermaliense will always appear the same. This link explains natural variation and
morphogenesis within aroids and other plant species in non-technical
language .
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