Do they ever flower? I bought a plant that had no identification. It is burgundy and resembles one of your Philodendrums. It had a small single bracket flower that resembled a Bromeliad flower, it was bright orange. The leaf edges are turning brown and some of the leaves have dried up. I really want to save this plant. I have had it for about three weeks now. I have had it in a low light area.

Thank you, Barbara Stolfa

Plantainia!
I think you might have a type of ginger there, I have recently seen a beautiful 'new' ginger that had dark foliage like yours, and a bright orange flower. Your plant - if it is a ginger, but also if it is a Philodendron - would love to be in a moist humid environment. If you have it indoors with heating it might just be getting too dry. Place it in your bathroom, or on a saucer with water, to give it more of its natural rainforest floor environment.
Someone else may have a better identification....

Looks like a Calathea to me.

Dutchlady 1
Thank you for your response. My plant does resemble a small picture of a ginger I have in an old plant book. I will take your advice and put my plant on a bed of pebbles in it's tray. I've just retired and am going to work on getting my thumb greener. Plantania

It looks like a Calathea to me too, are the stripes on the leaves just shadow or are they real? There are a lot of them, here's the entry on the database. http://garden.org/plants/searc...

I'd guess Calathea also; how about C. crocata? http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bi...

Lin you did it I believe! I recently saw this plant for the first time (cultivar 'Tasmania') and I believe it might be the same one.
@Plantainia

It sure is a beauty and does indeed look like the cultivar 'Tasmania'. When googling I found a couple of photo's of 'Tasmania':

http://www.flickr.com/photos/t...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8...

To all who deciphered my plant was a Calathea, you were right on the money. The clincher was the photo posted from wikipedia by plantladylin. It is the species calathea crotata "tasmania" Eternar Flame. I am now going to Google it to find out how to care for it.

I hope you have good luck with it. Even though many of them are native to this area I have never been able to keep them alive more than a few months. I don't know what I do wrong but I've stopped trying now, they are beautiful and I always want to buy one but, no more.

Mine (a C. ornata) has improved since companionizing it, into a pot with other plants. Doesn't seem to like any direct sun except very early or late in the day, from the cooler, sideways rays.

Yeah, they dwell on the rainforest floor so direct sun is a no-no.