Chocolate crystallinum is a showy contrast veined velvet leaf anthurium best known for its distinctive angular vein pattern with "Y-shaped" or "forked" veins near the leaf margins. The name likely derives from the color of the emergent leaves which can have a reddish brown coloration. Certain clones can show varying degrees of sinus fusion including the one pictured in the title photo which I have designated #1 and have also nicknamed "Vegvisir" after the Icelandic symbol of which the vein pattern reminds me.
Origins
The origins of this plant have been a bit of a mystery since it was first introduced into the hobby with most assuming the plant was a hybrid originating from the South American nurseries which first sold it. I recently reached out to one of the nurseries growing these plants to ask them what the history was and was surprised to get a very different story.
The story goes that the plants were collected from a wild population somewhere in Colombia and brought back to Ecuador where they were distributed to several nurseries in the area. This means that as many have suspected there are multiple original clones and not just one singular clone. Additionally this means that the plant originates not from a bench but from the wild. This of course does not rule out the possibility that the plant is a wild hybrid and certainly doesn't mean that plants being sold under this moniker are not selfs or bench hybrids derived from these original plants.
Controversy
As is often the case when a plant becomes as iconic and sought after as the chocolate crystallinum, a number of plants vaguely resembling (and sometimes not even) but entirely unrelated to the original plants have begun to be rebranded under this name and it's important to see mother plants and confirm lineage when possible (although its usually quite obvious). There are also a large number of plants that have been recently imported many of which likely reflect a combination of selfs and bench hybrids.
Care
Thus far I have found this plant to be fairly easy going not requiring any particular special care compared to other velvet leaf anthuriums. Mine are currently growing in my typical tent conditions which is approximately 85 percent humidity, temperatures in the high 70s F growing semihydroponically in pon. I suspect these could be successfully acclimated to certain ambient conditions as well given their easy going nature although I have not yet tested this myself. They seem to be fairly tolerant of light but definitely have a more attractive dark velvet appearance in lower light so I would target 300 FC or lower for mature plants.
Hybridization
So far in my experience breeding this plant the characteristic vein traits seem to be fairly consistently passed on to both selfed offspring and hybrids, although more time is needed for these plants to reach maturity. Even at this early stage the traits appear to be far more consistently passed on than something like "Stripey". Pictured below is one of my holdbacks from the Stripey x Chocolate crystallinum cross showing a nice combination of traits from both parents.
