Goeppertia warscewiczii
Goeppertia warscewiczii, long grown as Calathea warscewiczii, is one of the best-known velvet-leaved prayer plants: dark green leaves with a pale fishtail band along the midrib, purple undersides and cone-like white bracts that age to purple. It is native to the wet Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica and neighbouring countries from Nicaragua to Panama, growing in warm, saturated forest with no real dry season, and it is the most forgiving species in this group as long as humidity stays high.
Where it grows wild
A clump-forming understory herb of lowland and foothill rain forest on the Caribbean slope of Central America, on shaded forest floor, stream banks and moist forest edges. In Costa Rica it is often confused with the hairier Goeppertia leucostachys, which shares its habitat.
Wild Costa Rican records lie mainly from sea level to about 300 m on the Caribbean plain; records above 1,600 m come from a botanic garden and a mislocated specimen.
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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.