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Calathea lutea
Also called Cuban Cigar Plant
In Singapore: Cigar Calathea, Cuban Cigar, Mexican Cigar Plant, Habana Cigar, Pampano (Grown in Singapore)
Calathea lutea is a tall, wet-tropical perennial from the prayer-plant family, grown for its huge leaves and cigar-shaped reddish bracts. It needs warmth, humidity and shade-to-bright-indirect light to thrive.
Calathea lutea, called the bijao, cigar calathea, Cuban cigar, Mexican cigar plant, Habana cigar, and pampano, is a species of flowering plant from the genus Calathea in the family Marantaceae. It is native to Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Mexico, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles and Windward Is.
In the Brazilian Amazon, local artisans use the flower stalks to make woven handicrafts such as sieves, baskets, and board games. The leaves of Calathea lutea are often used as a wrapping material to cook food in Amazonian countries.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Calathea lutea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
