Glowing red

I can never resist photographing a brilliant red Anthurium when I see one! This large one was growing at the Calgary Zoo Conservatory.

"They grow in the most diverse habitats, mostly in wet tropical mountain forest of Central America and South America, but some in semi-arid environments. Most species occur in Panama, Colombia, Brazil, the Guiana Shield and Ecuador.

The flowers are small (about 3 mm) and develop crowded in a spike on a fleshy axis and called a spadix, a characteristic of the arums. The flowers on the spadix are often divided sexually with a sterile band separating male from female flowers. This spadix can take on many forms (club-shaped, tapered, spiraled, and globe-shaped) and colors (white, green, purple, red, pink, or a combination).

The spadix is part of an inflorescence. The outer portion of the inflorescence is known as the spathe. Some people like to call the spathe a "flower", however it is simply a modified leaf. The spathe may be a single color (yellow, green, or white) or possibly multicolored including burgundy and red. The spathe is a showy modified bract that can be somewhat leathery in texture." From Wikipedia.