Calathea guzmanioides
A giant, highly variable Calathea, 2–4 m tall, with huge green leaves on long, thick petioles. Its compact, bromeliad-like inflorescence arises from a leaf node and bears round, dry-tipped bracts in green, yellow or red, with purple-and-yellow flowers. It grows in wet forest from Costa Rica to the Colombian Chocó and north-western Ecuador, and in cultivation it is a plant for a large, warm, humid greenhouse.
Where it grows wild
A large terrestrial herb of wet lowland and premontane forest: in the understorey, in gaps, along forest edges and on stream banks. One Colombian collector recorded it as a riverside herb with stems 2.5–3 cm thick, petioles 1.6–2.2 m and blades 1–1.5 m long. Records include the Chocó rain forest, the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and Panama (Limón, Bocas del Toro), and premontane forest near Turrialba and in La Amistad.
Recorded from near sea level to about 1,900 m, with the median record near 875 m; many Costa Rican and Panamanian records are at 1,100–1,500 m.
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.