magnificum "Mickey" x Anthurium dressleri "Extremely Dark Dressleri"

magnificum "Mickey" x dressleri "Extremely Dark Dressleri"

The seed parent here carries more history than most plants I've had the privilege of owning, let alone breeding with. This ecotype of A. magnificum was cloned from a plant likely wild-harvested some 80 years ago, and for years it sat in the foyer of a Miami orchid nursery under the care of Mickey Carmichael, a prominent grower in that world for decades. Enid Offolter of NSE Tropicals saw it about 20 years ago, when it was already thought to be pushing 60, and left with a cutting - which she eventually grew into an enormous clone of her own, a piece of which she donated to the International Aroid Society's Annual Member Dinner & Auction. I got into a bidding war for it. I won. A. magnificum is thought to be a complex of 20-plus subspecies or ecotypes, and plenty of them circulate under names like "Norte" or "Silver," but "Mickey" is the one I'm partial to, for obvious reasons.

The pollen parent is dressleri "Extremely Dark Dressleri." I have no notes on file for it beyond the name, which is doing a lot of the talking already. This cross exists mostly because I wanted to see what happens when eight decades of pedigree meets a plant whose whole reputation is right there on the tag.