Peace Lily – Spathiphyllum spp.

Common Name: Peace Lily, White Anthurium

Botanical Name: Spathiphyllum spp., spath-i-FILL-um

Decorative Life: Weeks, months to years, depending on use and care.

Flower Color: Green, White

Availability: Year Round

Maintain growing mix moist and do not allow salts to build up. Also, increasing growing media pH decreased the severity of Cylindrocladium disease. Spraying plants with gibberellin at 250 ppm can stimulate flowering some 9-11 weeks later depending on cultivar.

• Member of the Araceae (arum family).
• Native of Colombia.
• Common relatives include philodendron, anthurium, pothos and caladium.

• Classed as a monocotyledon.
• Leaves are oval or elliptical, narrowed to a point, on stalks coming directly from the soil line.
• Flower head consists of leaf-like spathe surrounding column-like spadix made up of small flowers. Often confused with its cousin, Anthurium.

Chill sensitive, store at or above 60F. Exposing plants to 50F for one day or 55F for two days can cause chill related problems. Symptoms include leaf wilting and/or water soaked looking spots on the leaf margins.

• Spathiphyllum: Greek for leaf-spathe, referring to the character of the spathe. A spathe is a leaf or bract subtending (below) a flower cluster. It is often colored and considered part of the flower as in this species.
• Several arum family members (including taro) are grown in tropical regions for their edible tubers, representing starch staples for large populations. Many other species are grown for their beautiful foliage.
• Essentially pest-free. If grown in Florida, plants should have been produced under 70-80% shade. Grown under lower light levels, plants are better adapted for the commonly encountered lower light levels when placed indoors.
• Will generally grow well in light levels bright enough to read a newspaper in comfort.

Poole and Conover (1993) stored ‘Petite’ at 36-46F from 1-4 days and subsequently noted water-soaked spots on leaf margins within a few days. As summarized by Brown (1988) of the work by Wolverton et al. (numerous years), this is one of many foliage and flowering plant species that can remove air pollutants such as formaldehyde and/or benzene often found in cigarette smoke from interior environments.