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greentoe357

Calathea? Ctenanthe? Maranta? What is this?

greentoe357
9 years ago

I picked this up at Home Depot yesterday.

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I knew it was something special right away 'cause I've never seen this plant in stores here before. So, I went into the "get it now and take names later" mode.

Leaves are 4 in. / 10 cm. long at most:

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They grow in these cool fan-shaped arrangements:

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Leaf backs are dark-purple:

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The label says "Calathea":

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, which probably is a lie because google search at home brought no Calatheas that look even close.

But it does look like something out of the Marantaceae family, like a Maranta or a Ctenanthe perhaps.

More googling brought this image of an alleged Maranta amagris, which looks indistinguishable from my plant to me: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/februarysept/media/Houseplants/DSC_0131_zpsdc2ed991.jpg.html.

There are also a couple of Ctenanthes here (http://gardendrum.com/2013/05/11/ctenanthe-the-never-never-plants/) that look very similar:

Ctenanthe setosa "Grey Star" has more elongated leaf with a more acute tip and looks like leaves are larger, but otherwise it looks pretty close.

Ctenanthe burle-marxii "Amagris" there also looks close - and there's that "amagris" again, just like the Maranta above. Might it be the same plant they are showing, perhaps moved into the neighboring genus at some point in time? They say "There is a further dwarf mutation of this plant which appears to be as yet unnamed", but they do not mention the sizes of the dwarf or the regular-size plants, so I have no idea where mine would belong.

Finally, there's this Maranta Grey Star:
http://natufloraplantas.com.br/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33&Itemid=19. And this again is a partial name repetition with that similar-looking Ctenanthe setosa "Grey Star". The picture here does have some differences with my plant though - their grey is much more contrasting with the veins - my grey is greener and closer to the vein color. Also, their leaves seem to have a more pronounced green border running on the leaf edge. My leaves have a bit of that, but to a smaller degree.

So, any idea what this is? The name would be nice to have just because, but also because I want to google how to care for it. Some in this family are doing very well for me, and some others made me observe their suicide. I want this one to thrive - it's so funky looking.

I had a feeling maybe the "PBS" notation on the stickers might hold a clue to the nursery that produces this, but googling reveals it might just mean "pay by scan", which is a revenue sharing scheme between HD and the nursery. The pot does not look like it's EA or Costa Farms - none of those big guys.

I looked up the "706" code to at least find out the country of origin, and it is... drumroll... Norway! Yeah, no, I don't think so. :-)

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