Calathea lasiostachya
A tall Central American Calathea, 1–3 m high, with long green leaves on long petioles. Its distinctive rattle-like inflorescences carry hairy green-to-yellow bracts, which separate it from the similar hairless-bracted C. crotalifera, and several inflorescences often arise from one leaf node. It grows in the understorey of wet lowland Caribbean-slope forest, especially in Costa Rica, and needs warm, humid, shaded conditions and constant moisture.
Where it grows wild
A terrestrial herb of the old-growth and secondary wet forest understorey and forest edges, with many records from La Selva Biological Station and Tortuguero in Costa Rica. It also occurs in premontane forest on the slopes of Rincón de la Vieja (450–1,000 m) and in south-eastern Nicaragua.
Recorded from near sea level to about 1,500 m, with the median record near 130 m; it is mostly a lowland plant.
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More Calathea
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, unmodified.