carlablackiae "Tropicarla" x magnificum "Norte"

carlablackiae "Tropicarla" x magnificum "Norte"

The seed parent has a name I am still proud of. I bought the plant from an Ecuadorian nursery at the tail end of a show, sold to me as seed grown, and once I got it home and could actually look at it, that claim fell apart - divided at the stem, plain as day. Not enough there to call it wild-collected either, so I just held my suspicions and enjoyed the plant. I keep several flowering-size carlablackiae around and try to tell them apart when I can, which is how this one got its name. I was in the greenhouse one night listening to the Rays - my team, for the haters - and the announcer kept saying Tropicana Field, and it clicked. Tropicarla. Maybe my best name yet, and I say that as someone who has named a lot of plants poorly.

The pollen parent came from Scott Cohen as a seed-grown baby, magnificum "Norte." Its venation runs a little differently than other magnificum I've grown, forking close to the margin instead of staying tucked inside a perimeter vein, and the inflorescence carries a smell somewhere between menthol and moth balls, which is either charming or alarming depending on your nose.

Whatever comes out of this cross, I expect it to be a more intelligible expression of everything I just wrote here. That's usually how it goes.