Peace lily green flowers are a process that happens because it is part of their natural life cycle; however, many factors can accelerate this color transition from white to green.
This article will talk about the factors causing the transition to happen faster and how we can prevent this. Keep reading to learn more about why the flowers of your peace lilies are turning green.
Contents
What Causes Peace Lily Green Flowers?
Peace lily green flowers are caused by them growing spathe or having been exposed to too much fertilizer. In addition, they can also result from too much light, or the contrary when they don’t have much light. It can also be due to acclimation or its genetics.
Although the turning green of the peace lily flower is part of its natural life cycle, certain factors can affect the rate of the flower’s transition from white to green. It can be due to excessive fertilizer and improper sunlight, or it can happen when the plant is adjusting to its environment. Alternatively, it may be a normal trait of the specific plant variant.
– Growth of Spathe
Peace lily green flowers happen as a part of their natural life cycle, and considering this, you must also know that the flower is referred to as a spathe. It is a modified leaf or bract that encircles the tiny flowers. The spathes may create chlorophyll and aid in the plant’s capacity to obtain energy from sunlight because they resemble real leaves closely.
This spathe develops with a greenish color, then turns white, and eventually turns green again once the flowers wilt, which means that when you see green flowers, it may be these.
Then, it will finally turn brown when it is dying. Also, some species or varieties of peace lilies may develop progressively more green spathes as they get older. This results from the stem producing more chlorophyll as it ages.
The primary function of the stem of the peace lily is to attract pollinators so that the plant can reproduce. The plant will then turn its attention back to energy production once it has given pollinators enough time to complete their task. To do this, the spathe or flower of the peace lily plant will change color from white to green so that it can photosynthesize.
– Too Much Fertilizer
Given that the peace lily is a tropical plant, it thrives and blooms in low- to moderate-fertility soil. However, when it becomes overfertilized, especially with rich fertilizers in the soil mix, including those with a high nitrogen and iron content, the spathes respond by making more chlorophyll, which causes even the white flowers to turn green again.
Peace lilies do not need a lot of fertilizer. When applied too frequently or in excessive amounts, it will encourage the growth of the leaves rather than the flowers, speeding up the process by which any already present blossoms transform from white to green.
It is important to note that all peace lily flowers will eventually turn green after two or three weeks, but with too much fertilizer, it can happen a lot sooner. You will know this if you have overfertilized your plant or if you have any flowers, but they never become white, even after you stopped fertilizing.
To avoid over-fertilizing, the ideal course of action is to apply a fertilizer designed for indoor plants in the spring, when active growth starts, with a strength of half or even one-quarter. This will ensure that your plant will still get the proper nutrients to promote the growth of its leaves and flowers without overfeeding.
Peace lilies will benefit from a fertilizer that is evenly balanced, such as 10-10-10 NPK, or one that is somewhat higher in nitrogen. It will produce many attractive spathes and aid in maintaining the health of the plant. However, be careful not to overfeed your plant.
– Too Much Light
Another reason why the flowers of the peace lily turn green is when they are exposed to too much sunshine. Even though the peace lily is a low-light indoor plant, placing it under bright, indirect light will make it blossom even more.
However, it will also cause the flowers to turn green a little faster than those in shadier areas. Given that chlorophyll is the reason for the shifting color of the flower as part of the photosynthesis process, it is believed that if the plant is exposed to more sunlight, it can absorb more chlorophyll.
Therefore, it will cause the white flowers to turn green earlier because more light creates more favorable conditions, which is why they will grow in this way. If you wish to prevent exposure to too much light, then you must make sure that your peace lilies are in a location where there is a short distance from a window and out of direct sunlight.
You can check the light by holding your palm up against a wall. If only a little shadow is visible, the light is too dim, but if the shadow has a fuzzy shape, then you have an indirect, strong light, and you will avoid the greenness if you detect the cause from the early stages.
– Not Enough Light
Another reason that causes green flowers on peace lilies is insufficient light. Even though peace lilies are thought to prefer low light, if they are placed in extremely low-light areas, the plants, especially those younger than twelve months old or recently transferred, will not flower at all.
Low light might cause the flowers to emerge with a green tint or start off white but quickly turn green. This is because the plant struggles to create sufficient energy when there is little light. Moreover, you will also observe and check that the low light levels encourage the plant to do this because the spathes can photosynthesize and help in the production of energy.
In addition, being in a low-light area makes most plants move the chloroplasts, which contain chlorophyll, to the surface of their leaves, making them appear green. As a result of the spathes pushing whatever chlorophyll is present to the top, where it may absorb more light, spathes with little or no chlorophyll in them seem greener.
In order to avoid this situation, make sure to place your peace lilies in a room with bright, indirect light, as they will thrive in this condition. However, keep in mind that you cannot entirely prevent having a green color on the flowers or spathe as it is part of the normal life cycle of this plant.
– Acclimation
Your peace lily plant will be in full bloom when you purchase it. However, these existing flowers may become green because the environmental conditions of your home are different from those in the greenhouse where these plants came from.
Even though it can be challenging to create the ideal environment, you should strive to create an environment that supports the growth of your peace lily plant. When you do this, the flowers will be encouraged to endure as long as possible and slow down from turning green.
Your peace lilies should survive for around a month, but occasionally, they may even stay longer. Although they are most likely to bloom in the spring when it is the peace lily flower season, others also bloom in the fall.
The flowers of the peace lily plant do not revert to white once they have become green, and as it grows, you will see that it only changes from white to green before finally becoming brown and withering away. It will not return to its white color no matter what you do.
– It May Be Genetically Green
Some species or variants of peace lilies normally have some degree of spathe greening. Suppose you are giving your plant proper care and ensuring that it is not overfertilized and exposed to improper sunlight, but the flowers are still turning green. In that case, it is possible that greening is a normal trait of the specific variety of the plant.
After two to three weeks, all peace lily blossoms transition from white to green because their purpose shifts from attracting pollinators while they are white to photosynthesis when they turn green. After this, the flowers will die away.
FAQ
– Is It Necessary to Remove the Peace Lily Flowers That Turned Green?
No, removing them is unnecessary because when peace lily flowers become green, they continue to photosynthesize and provide energy to the peace lily. However, when they are already wilting and dying, it is ideal to prune them, as they are no longer useful to the plant.
Conclusion
Having green flowers on your peace lilies when you expected a white flower to grow might be concerning, but now that you know what is causing this, it’s one less worry for you. Let us recap what we have learned:
- Technically known as spathes, this is commonly mistaken for the flower of the peace lily. It is a modified leaf that turns green as a natural part of its life cycle.
- Normally, the flower or spathe turns green after two or three weeks, but they can turn green much more quickly because too much fertilizer causes excess foliage growth.
- Improper sunlight, both too much and too little, will also cause peace lily spathes to turn from white to green more quickly.
- With too much light, the green pigment in the flower dominates because of a greater rate of photosynthesis, which causes the spathe to turn green.
- A change in the environmental condition can also cause the spathe to turn green when the plant is still adjusting.
Now that you know the reasons why the flowers of your peace lilies turn green, you should be able to properly take care of your plant and enjoy its beauty as it goes through this phase.
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