Stromanthe
(from stroma, a couch, and anthos, a flower; alluding to the form of the inflorescence). SYN. Maranta (in part). ORD. Scitamineae. A small Brazilian genus (three or four species) of handsome, stove perennials. Sepals three, free, oval-oblong, slender, equalling the corolla; petals three, slightly narrower than the sepals; bracts and bracteoles spathe-like, coloured, spreading; inflorescence borne on a long and rather loose peduncle, more or less compound, often branched from the base, rarely narrow and nearly racemiform, often wholly blood-coloured. Leaves petiolate, in very short sheaths. Stems leafy, erect, slightly branched, marked with long leaf-sheaths. For culture, see Calathea.
S. amabilis (lovely). l. deflexed, oblong-ovate, acuminate, unequal-sided, the surface ornamented by narrow bands of dark and light green in the direction of the veins, much broader spaces of silvery-grey intervening; petioles rather tall, cylindrical. 1875. A very ornamental foliage plant. (B. H. 1875, 15-17, f. 2.) . Lubbersiana (Lubbers'). l. oblong, acuminate, irregularly wedge-shaped at base, smooth, greyish beneath; upper surface prettily marbled with yellow, pale and dark green, in spots and irregular bands. 1880. A good foliage plant. (B. H. 1882, i.) S. Porteana (Porte's). fl. spicate; spikes compound, solitary or twin; rachis geniculate, villous; bracts distichous, imbricated. l. ovate or lanceolate, pubescent or villous, of a pleasing green above, paler beneath. 1859. A handsome, dwarf plant.
S. sanguinea (bloody).* The correct name of plant described in this work as Phrynium sanguineum. (F d. S. 785.) S. spectabilis (remarkable). fl., bracts, pedicels, and calyx deep red; corolla whitish; common peduncle slender, longer than the leaves; branchlets three to five, fascicled, sub-umbellate, compound-paniculate at apex. l. ovate-oblong, rounded at base, glabrous, of a pleasing green above, paler beneath. SYN. Thalia spectabilis (L. J. F. 401).