Calathea lutea
A giant, clump-forming marantaceous herb, 2–4 m tall, from lowland tropical America, with huge paddle leaves covered in white wax underneath. Unlike most calatheas it is a plant of open, wet, disturbed ground: coastal marshes, riverbanks, creek beds and forest gaps, rarely deep forest. So it wants far more light, warmth and water than the patterned understory 'calatheas'.
Where it grows wild
The Flora of Barro Colorado Island (Panama) describes it as mainly in coastal marshes and disturbed areas, almost never in the forest except in tree-fall gaps, and occasional on creek beds and shoreline soil deposits. Other accounts describe swampy zones and riverbanks in humid forest regions at low to middle elevations. It forms dense stands from spreading rhizomes.
Recorded elevations run 6–1696 m, with a median of 168 m from 320 records. It is essentially a hot-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.