Flower Friday: Anthurium

My Editor has kindly allowed me to blip this Anthurium which I gave her recently. (We're now safely back home, but with plans to return to Cheshire in a few weeks' time to finish the job of clearing the house.)

Of course, I had to look up about it, as one does when blipping. Although I originally assumed that the whole red thingy (plus the yellow stamen-looking thing) is the flower, I was wrong as usual. Seemingly the red thingy is called a spathe, and is actually a modified leaf. The yellow fleshy spike is called a spadix and the real flowers are the tiny excrescences on the spadix, making it seem slightly rough.

Anthuriums are herbaceous epiphytes (plants which grow on another plant); the Anthurium genus consists of more than 800 species found in the New World tropics from Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay. Anthurium is also known as Painted Tongue, Flamingo Flower (Flamingo Lily) or Tail Flower.

So now I know!

Many thanks as always to BikerBear for hosting Flower Friday; I'm glad she's feeling better this week.