Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

A Calathea of elegant appearance which will grow 3' to 5' high in half shade to shade. The leaves of Calathe burle-marxii cultivar 'Blue Ice' arise in clumps on long stalks about 1 foot long. The leaf blades are 30 inches long and pure-green. The plant produces a shiny bluish-white bracted inflorescence with delicate bluish-white flowers that nestles within the plant. The 5 to 7 inch long inflorescence produces new flowers every morning for quite a long period.

The genus Calathea consists of about 150 species of herbaceous perennials from the Tropical Americas ranging from the West Indies and Mexico to South America. Calathea burle-marxii is native to the state of Bahia, Brazil.

The name of this genus comes from the Greek word "kalathos", meaning a basket and probably refers to the appearance of the flower heads of some species.

We currently have 3 herbarium specimens for Calathea burle-marxii in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 019722 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1995
• 085222 - collected by David H. Lorence in 2018
• 091216 - collected by Tim Flynn in 2019