Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Peace Lily

 The peace lily is a plant that really thrive at our garden without any care. It is also a plant that blooms all year round when the clump of plants is well-established. This peace lily plant white spathe has a greyish stripe mark when closely observe. The photo was taken during wet season, so some soil has jumped onto the spathe indicating very heavy rain. But what fascinated me the most regarding this plant that the blooming flower of the peace lily specifically on the spike (spadix) are surrounded by this insects as shown in the picture. Actually before I got really close to the plant to take some photos, not only 3 insects but the whole spadix was covered with this insect. Can anyone help me give a name to this insect? somehow today the name does not pop out from my head. It is not just this one day that I have seen the whole spadix covered by this insect but quite frequent. So I guess this insect must be really attracted to what is oozing out from the bloom. It made me think whether the peace lily plants will be a good companion plant attracting this insect, not sure why I think this insect will make good-pollinators. Just a theory will be nice to see how the result will be.
 The white bloom will turn to green as its get older. The spike or actual flower is more apparent when they are old. I found many peace lily plants on places it should not suppose to be growing. The white anthurium plant must have been able to produce viable seeds which the reason we found many volunteer plants, many thanks to its pollinators.
 Peace lily plants are able to live happily as long as they received plenty of moistures, 70% humidity is very ideal for this plant. Warm, moisture and humidity the plants grows really well here in the tropics all year round. The peace lily plant can develop aerial-root, as pointed with white arrow on the picture above. The aerial-root of the peace lily plant is capable of catching moisture, they can also somehow found their own spot growing on solid stone or even on a tree bark instead of soil. For light growing condition, the peace lily plant ain't picky, they seem to do just fine either on full light, partial light or shade here in the tropics. For example, peace lily plants from picture above are growing under pergola and not receiving any direct sunlight, they are in shade or the most they get is filtered light.
The peace lily plant seems to multiply much faster growing in full sun compared to other location. For example, I have to transplant some of peace lily plants in this area to other location as it looks like it  is starting to choke other plants.  A small space but so many different plants are doing their best to mark their presence ~ rangoon creeper plants, hippeastrum bulbs, self-seeded bird-eyes chllis, balsams, papaya and others.
 These peace lily plants are growing in partial shades circling a roof climbing bougainvillea plant. More needed to transplant away from these area getting too dense. Pointed white arrow shows seeds found on the spathe.The peace lily plant can also be grown by divisions.
 The white spathe is not really the favourite colour that beckon pollinators to drop by like bright orange or yellow colour. However, I remembered my gardening friend Sean mentioned to me about the uniqueness of some white colour flower method of attracting pollinators attention is by the flower fragrance. Yes, the peace lily plant does have a fragrance of its own. I remembered when I snipped some peace lily flower stalk early in the morning for last year heart charity event display , on the way in the car suddenly fill like some  kind of a perfume smell. After awhile, I realised the perfume like smell came from the peace lily flower. No wonder, especially in the early morning , the sighting of insects on the peace lily spike is one of the usual activity in our garden. Peace lily plant is also a good air-purifying plant which probably be a good indoor plant as well.

At first, I wrongly ID this plant as white anthurium. Thank you for blogger friends for pointing out my mistake that this is peace lily plant.

17 comments:

Sunray Gardens said...

Very pretty and how wonderful to be able to have something that gives blooms all year long.
Cher Sunray Gardens

Sue Garrett said...

The flower is a little like the peace lilies that I have a pot plants. Lots of white flowers attract night flying insects too.

Mark Willis said...

Those insects look to me like some sort of Wasp.

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

I think this would be a houseplant only here. Love the bright white flower.

~TastyTravels~ said...

Pretty! Makes me miss home (Hawaii) and all of the tropical flowers we have there!!!

nadia rashid said...

pokok sy dah makin serasi dengan tanah

Unknown said...

I think Sue Garrett is right. Looks like Spathiphyllum or its common name, Peace Lily.

You have some clumps of lush leaves and and many fragrant blooms.

veggiegobbler said...

I have some of these indoors.They are pretty. Actually I also have one in the bathroom that has red flowers. I just checked it's name cos I still have the tag and it is an anthurium too.

Malar said...

look like penyegat!
I have white variety took but not so healthy like to pink variety!

Anonymous said...

jarang jumpa bunga in white color yg menarik macm ni!

Kate said...

The little green eyed flies are very pretty and they do look like good pollenators. Sometimes I think the insects in a garden are as pretty as the flowers.

KL said...

Beautiful plant, especially the leaves.

Autumn Belle said...

The white anthuriums are gorgeous, the plus point being that it has a fragrance too. The insects on the plant - could they be the stingless bees?

黄清华 Wong Ching Wah said...

Pretty, I like the first one !

Kadazan sis.TRG said...

Hi,the white anthurium is one of the few flower that is easy to take care of.I also have them in my garden. I also have the red ones which is a bit smaller(I am not sure whether they are in the same family....but the features are exactly the same).

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Cher~ The peace lily bloom much better during wet season than dry season.

Sue~ Yes white flowers does attract night flying insects very clear during night time. You are right this might be Peace lilies.

Mark~ Thanks. Yes wasps.

GoSS~ I am always amazed how well your houseplant does.

Holly~ Hope you can have a trip back to Hawaii soon.

Nadia~ Syukur alhamdulillah nanti membiaklah tu.

Stiletto~ Yes I made a mistake with the ID. Self-seeded in our garden and they grow very fast.

Veggiegobbler~ Yes the red ones are more common as a houseplant.

Malar~I don't have the pink ones. But the white ones thrive easily on their own.

Kesuma Angsana~ Cantik juga untuk hiasan bunganya tahan lama.

Kate~ Yes sometime the insects as pretty as the flowers.

KL~ Evergreen here in the tropics the leaves.

Autumn Belle~ I am not really sure what kind of insects it is. Yes I like the fragrance.

Wong Ching Wah~ Thank you :) .

Kadazan sis TRG~ The red ones must be anthurium if the flower petal is heart-shape.

Anonymous said...

I ve peace lily plant nut it bloomed twice. Once when I bought it and once last year.it didn't nloom the whole year although the foliage is thick and healthy.do I have to put fertilizer to get the bloom all round the year. The plant is nig and always grows leaves but no bloom.