Anthurium "Red Spider self" x carlablackiae "Tropicarla"

Red Spider self x carlablackiae "Tropicarla"

Not much to say about the seed parent, Red Spider self, other than its name, which I like enough to leave alone rather than dress up with invented backstory.

The pollen parent is more fun. "Tropicarla" came to me from an Ecuadorian nursery at the tail end of a plant show, sold to me as seed grown. It was not - divided at the stem, plain as day once I got it home and looked closer. I don't have enough to call it wild-collected either, so I just hold a little suspicion and move on. As for the name, I have several flowering-size carlablackiae in the greenhouse and try to tell them apart when I can, and this one got its name off a Rays broadcast, of all things, when the announcer kept saying Tropicana Field and something clicked. Tropicarla. I said it out loud like an idiot. Might be my best name yet.

The seedling itself speaks more clearly than anything I could write about it here. Enjoy it, and whatever it goes on to make.