With many Chamaedoreas the female spathes are held upright and at the same time, the males hang down instead. Chamaedorea elegans is not as obvious. The females are still a bit more upright than the males, but the males shoot off more to the side instead of hanging down. When they have fresh flowers is when you need to look close. Male flowers are clustered thicker on each racille and if you look close at each flower bump, the male will have what looks like multiple flower parts holding pollen on each bump. Females are more like a single hole in the middle of the bump which is where the pollen falls into. When the flowers are fresh and producing pollen, it is obvious.
I love Chamaedoreas! I used to have breeding colonies of 40 different species back when there were less than 90 species named. One BIG secret that may help. If you plant fresh seeds right away, they sprout within a month or so. Get seeds that are even a month old, it can take 18 months for them to start sprouting, then they come up like grass seed. BTW, when they are black and fat, they are ready to pick and plant. ( just below the surface in a good water retentive medium)
