Prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura)
Description
Maranta leuconeura, also known as prayer plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Marantaceae, native to the Brazilian tropical forests. It is a variable, rhizomatous perennial, growing to 30 cm (12 in) tall and broad, with crowded clumps of evergreen, strikingly-marked oval leaves, each up to 12 cm (5 in) long. Small, white flowers appear during the growing season, although this is rarely observed in houseplants and the flowers are not of particular value in comparison to the attractive foliage. Roots are shallow. Maranta is a genus of flowering plants native to tropical Central and South America and the West Indies. The Maranta genus of plants was named for Bartolomeo Maranta, an Italian physician and botanist of the sixteenth century. About 40-50 species are currently recognized by the scientific community, and they all have rhizomes arising naturally form perennial clumps. The leaves are crowded together, oval and evergreen. They are also flat by day and fold up into themselves as the day comes to an end. From this behavior comes the common name "prayer plant" - notably M. leuconeura. The flowers are small with three petals and two larger petal-like staminodes. Some species such as Maranta leuconeura (prayer plant) and Maranta arundinacea are grown as common houseplants, needing only a warm and stable environment. They can be propagated through cuttings (2 - 3 leaves) or by root division.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Zingiberales
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Family: Marantaceae
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Genus: Maranta
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