About
Anthurium carlablackiae is a contrast veined understory velvet from Panama and Colombia. The plant is named for its discoverer, Carla Black, a horticulturist who happened upon it while looking for heliconia. The best specimens possess nearly black foliage with striking white veins. It is another very compact grower with many individuals holding their petioles horizontally or even below horizontal. Petioles are ridged similar to dressleri with color from greenish red to a deep burgundy. It also possesses perhaps the most attractive flower of the popular velvet species with a white spathe with varying degrees of pink margination.
Most of the current carlablackiae in circulation originate from Rory Antolak. This includes a number of wild clones, plants grown from wild collected seed and domestically bred seed grown material.
There are also a small number of plants in collections which originate from Carla Black herself who sent seeds to the states although some of these turned out to be suspected hybrids.
Growing/Conditions
I grow my carlablackiae in pon in self watering pots just like I do with the vast majority of my collection. Just like the other As far as light levels, I find that carlablackiae can take a fair amount of light without bleaching (i grow my mature plants around 300 fc which is quite a bit higher than say dressleri or kuna where I aim for 200 fc or below). In this regard I find it similar to BVEP if not even a bit more light tolerant. Although overall fairly easy going, I have had the occasional unexplained crash or stall from some carlablackiae I have grown over the years. The current mother plants and progeny that I am growing out have been quite robust and have not shown any signs of this tendency to date.
Hybridization/Breeding
Why carlablackiae
A great carlablackiae has a number of traits which make it one of the best species for hybridization in my opinion. The dark thick leaves and pink emergent veins mesh well with many of the other popular velvet species and the compact growth habit keeps the size manageable particularly for indoor/tent growers.
What I'm selecting for
Similar to dressleri, many carlablackiae possess a dark/black color on the nearly hardened or freshly hardened leaves, but this often fades quickly to a lighter green once the leaf is fully hardened and the next leaf is emerging. The best carlablackiae hold this nearly black coloration on multiple subsequent leaves.
Equally important in my opinion is pink veins. The best carlablackiae have electric pink emergent veins on a dark black background. This coloration can persist on the veins surrounding the sinus which is also a very desirable trait. Many carlablackiae unfortunately lack this important trait and have a less interesting yellowish/brown coloration on the emergent veins which doesn't stand out on the dark background.
Finally I am very interested in selecting for spathe traits such as more pink coloration and larger spathe sizes. My first crop of seed grown carlablackiae is just coming into flower so it's too early to see the range of variability in this trait.
A round x GPH001 F1 plant showing a particularly pink spathe.
Some select holdback plants from the round x GPH001 F1 cross showing interesting form. There has been a wide variability in form in this cross but with overall pretty uniformly excellent color.