{"id":61,"date":"2021-08-28T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-28T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoppingcolors.com\/?p=61"},"modified":"2022-04-23T14:37:52","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T19:37:52","slug":"an-little-introduction-on-calathea-white-fusion-plant-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoppingcolors.com\/?p=61","title":{"rendered":"I Tried To Find The Origin Of Calathea White Fusion, But I Found This Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Calathea white fusion is easily one of the most beautiful houseplants. It is beautiful in person and photogenic, but damn, it is high maintenance. I had a very hard time with the plant and an even harder time to find useful information about its natural habitat on the internet. Therefore, once and for all, I thought I can resolve at least one of the issues. Hopefully, this will help you with your Calathea white fusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n

Calathea White Fusion is a cultivar<\/strong>, meaning it is selectively developed by humans, which also explains why we cannot find any information about its natural habitat. Technically, the correct name <\/strong>should be Goeppertia leitzei <\/em>var. fusion white<\/strong>. WHAT!!? Yes I know. Let me explain. To make it easier on all of us, I will refer to it as “White Fusion” in this article without its genus and species<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Where Did It Come From?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n

White Fusion was discovered in Malaysia<\/strong>. Back in May of 2007<\/strong>, in a commercial nursery in Malaysia, a man spotted an interesting looking plant among many Calathea lietzei<\/em><\/strong> (now Goeppertia<\/em> leitzei<\/strong>). Imagine seeing a beautiful variegated Monstera<\/em> deliciosa albo among the regular Monstera<\/em> deliciosa… Must be a nice surprise. Anyway, this smart man took his lucky find, a Calathea <\/em>lietzei with a whole plant mutation, and brought it home to his own nursery in Florida. Subsequently, he spent years on testing, evaluation, reproducing, and eventually developed a beautiful plant with a stable mutation that we now known as “Calathea white fusion”. This man is the inventor of “Calathea white fusion”, Taiyan Yam. Thanks to Mr. Yam, we now have one more gorgeous plant to in the houseplant market to select from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Fusion has beautiful variegated leaves, and the variegation pattern varies from each leaf. Like a typical Calathea\/Goeppertia, it also has purple coloration under the leaves. Compare to its parent, White Fusion is similar in most horticultural characteristics, and different on leaf variegation and size. White Fusion is more compact, and also has smaller leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a comparison of the leaves: left is Calathea lietzei, middle and right are both White Fusion<\/strong>. Can you see the resemblance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n
Left: Calathea Lietzei, Middle\/Right: Calathea White Fusion<\/strong>
The image on the left is a partial image by Montrealais, full image is accessible here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Inventor Mr. Yam filed a US plant patent application and subsequently obtained a plant patent<\/a><\/strong> in 2015. Interestingly, in the plant patent, Yam named this plant “Calathea Fusion White<\/span>“, not “Calathea White Fusion<\/span>.” I don’t know if something got mislabeled at some point or “White Fusion” sounds more catchy than “Fusion White”, now this plant is commonly referred to and known as the “Calathea White Fusion.” (If it were up to me, I would probably call this plant “white con<\/span>fusion” because this plant is confusing af<\/s>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Side Note: A Little Introduction to Plant Patents <\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In case you are curious what does it mean to infringe a plant patent, here is an extremely brief summary: unless you have the authorization from the patent owner, the following actions count as plant patent infringement: asexually reproducing, selling, offering for sale, or using the patented plant or any of its parts in the United States or importing them into the United States. What is asexual reproduction you may ask? Asexual reproduction is the propagation of a plant without the use of fertilized seeds to assure an exact genetic copy of the plant being reproduced. Examples of asexual reproductions are rooting cuttings, grafting and budding, apomictic seed, bulbs, division, slips, layering, rhizomes, runner, corms, tissue culture, and nuclear embryos. Simply put, do not propagate the plant yourself and sell it unless you have a license<\/strong>. This plant patent will be valid until<\/strong> the end of the patent term on December 14, 2033<\/strong>, so please do not infringe<\/strong> the patent during its patent term<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of growing conditions do White Fusion like?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Natural habitat is always the best source to learn about a plant. Since White Fusion is a cultivar, let us look at its parent first: Calathea lietzei<\/em> (now Goeppertia<\/em> Lietzei). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Goeppertia Lietzei<\/a>‘s Natural Habitat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Calathea lietzei<\/em> is a species native to East Brazil<\/strong>. The current Latin name<\/strong> as I am writing this is Goeppertia Lietzei<\/strong><\/em>. As if it is not confusing enough, besides Calathea Lietzei<\/em>, it is also known as Calathea glaziovii<\/em>, Maranta lietzei<\/em>, and Phyllodes lietzei<\/em>. \ud83e\udd2a In 2012, a molecular based study redefined the genus Goeppertia<\/em> Nees to include some of the subgenera of Calathea<\/em> Meyer, hence some Calathea species were transferred to Goeppertia<\/em><\/strong> Nees<\/strong>. Naturally (not really for us botanical muggles)<\/s>, Calathea Lietzei<\/em> became Goeppertia lietzei<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.ympev.2018.06.015<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despite originated from Brazil, Goeppertia lietzei <\/em>is actually not native to the Amazon Rainforest. East Brazil covers a wide range of climate: <\/p>\n\n\n\n