Peace Lily Spathiphyllum

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Peace Lily Plant Description

This easy care plant with its broad, glossy green leaves and white blooms makes a great gift or an excellent floor plant.

Peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), also known as White sails, is a very popular indoor house plant. It is a clump-growing herbaceous perennial which produces white flowers which look like the hood of a cobra. Leaves are shiny and glossy, attractive even with no spathes. Peace lilies are sturdy plants with glossy, dark green oval leaves that narrow to a point. The leaves rise directly from the soil. The long-lasting flowers start out pale green and slowly turn creamy white as they open.

Spathiphyllum wallisii is one of thirty six species in a genus of tropical evergreens. It was discovered in the late 19th century growing wild in Central America. The species has been improved by the larger hybrids "Mauna Loa", named after Hawaiian volcano, and the even larger "Sensation", which are both popular indoor plants.

These elegant ariods produce striking, long-lasting white flowers, giving the plant its common name of Peace lily or White sails. Scientific names are also often based on an association of ideas. The botanist who named this plant obviously thought that its white flower spathe looked like a leaf-hence, in Greek, Spathiphyllum.

Peace Lily Plant Care

Light
Low light location is ideal. Likes low to medium light with some brighter light to produce blooms. Do not place the plant in full sun, as the leaves will burn.

Watering
Moderately moist soil is preferred. Avoid combinations of high temperatures and dry soil. Keep the plant constantly moist. If it dries out, the leaves will wilt downwards, and the plant will split apart.

Fertilizer
Rarely, on an as needed basis.

Potential Problems
Fertilizers are basically salts. When fertilizing potted houseplants you are putting salts in the pot. If these salts stay in the pot and are not leached out by thorough watering, the salts build up and burn the roots which can lead to brown tips.

Most houseplant fertilizer comes in liquid form. If you insist on fertilizing indoor plants - Cut the Dose. The question is: How much fertilizer to use? You would probably cut the recommended fertilizer rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon to 1/5 or 1/6 of a teaspoon per gallon.

Use Neem oil for Mealy bug.

Cultivars
Spathiphyllum atrovirens
Spathiphyllum bariense
Spathiphyllum blandum
Spathiphyllum brevirostre
Spathiphyllum candicans
Spathiphyllum candidum
Spathiphyllum candolleanum
Spathiphyllum cochlearispathum
Spathiphyllum commutatum
Spathiphyllum cuspidatum
Spathiphyllum floribundum
Spathiphyllum friedrichsthalii
Spathiphyllum fulvovirens
Spathiphyllum gardneri
Spathiphyllum glaziovii
Spathiphyllum grandifolium
Spathiphyllum huberi
Spathiphyllum jejunum
Spathiphyllum juninense
Spathiphyllum kalbreyeri
Spathiphyllum kochii
Spathiphyllum lacustre
Spathiphyllum laeve
Spathiphyllum lechlerianum
Spathiphyllum liesneri
Spathiphyllum maguirei
Spathiphyllum mawarinumae
Spathiphyllum monachinoi
Spathiphyllum montanum
Spathiphyllum neblinae
Spathiphyllum patini
Spathiphyllum perezii
Spathiphyllum phryniifolium
Spathiphyllum quindiuense
Spathiphyllum silvicola
Spathiphyllum sipapoanum
Spathiphyllum solomonense
Spathiphyllum wallisii
Spathiphyllum wendlandii