Alright, so I'm ready for a few new plants in the house and I came across this one. Fantastic looking foliage. I'm actually planning on doing a combo planting of this with a neat variety of Hedera helix (English ivy). Where I obtained it did not list a variety, which is annoying. Somebody worked on that plant, show some props.
The plant I got ahold of has some great looking red in the foliage. It is a hybrid OR from tissue culture. I totally want to try to tissue culture this thing now. The genus of Algaonema is relatively small with about 21 species. There are several species listed as illegitimate, so taxonomists have been playing around a bit with the genus. It's been in cultivation since at least 1885 when it was brought to Kew gardens in London. (I'm totally going to that place!).
It is a member of the Araceae family (aroid or arum family) which means it's related to Amorphophallus titanum (it's worth a copy and paste look...I'm not going to spoil you). I actually have 2 other members of this family in the house. I must have an aroid thing. The inflorescence is called a spadix (think peace lily) and has unisexual flowers on it with male flowers on the top and female flowers on the bottom. That being said. If you want to keep it around, don't let it flower. Remove those. Or don't ..it's up to you.
The inflorescence, the female flowers are at the very bottom and are yellowish
Care:
Its natural habitat is shady forests of Asian tropics. It likes warm humid places BUT, being an understory plant doesn't need a lot of water. I was pretty surprised to see how warm this plant liked to be. Recommendations for care indicate a minimum temperature of 60-65 degrees. Jeez. It's very susceptible to cold damage, and manifests as brown/black greasy looking spots on the leaves. It does like to be on the moist side, so try not to let it dry out too much. This one will require a little bit more attention to watering as a trade of for its versatility with light requirements. It can handle very low light but gets a little less bushy looking. Avoid direct sunlight as the leaves will scorch. A monthly fertilization is probably more than adequate as it can decline if fertilized too heavily.
Important to note!: The less light you receive the more you're going to want to let it dry out, at the very least when the top of the soil is dry and maybe even a little lower down into the pot.
This link I found from aroid.org is amazing and comprehensive. Check it out.
http://www.aroid.org/genera/aglaonema/aglaonema_success/aglaonema_success.pdf
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