SCINDAPSUS PICTUS 'MAYARI'

ORIGIN:

Sport of Scindapsus pictus, originator undisclosed; named by Melissa Travis, 2019; accepted by the IAS Aroid Cultivar Registry

CULTIVAR DESCRIPTION:

A white-variegated sport: flat, ovate-cordiform leaves with acute apices and cordate bases, 8–10 cm long when young and about 13 cm at maturity, with a smooth, matte lamina raised where the silver patterns lie, retaining the green ground and silver markings of 'Exotica' but overlaid with white variegation that ranges from a white sliver at the center of the leaf to the entire leaf, the so-called full-moon variegation; the petioles and stems carry the same white, from a single line to an entirely white petiole or stem.¹

NOTES:

STATUS - Accepted by the International Aroid Society's Aroid Cultivar Registry. The registry's own record reads Accepted: Yes, Established: No, so the name is accepted but not yet established in print. As of September 2026 the registry had accepted 17 Scindapsus names and published the entries of only two, this one and 'Legacy'.

1. Registered with the International Aroid Society's Aroid Cultivar Registry as a sport released in 2019, accepted pending publication; the originator is undisclosed and the namer is Melissa Travis. It is a climber that is also grown in hanging pots, develops larger leaves when planted in the ground, and produces its all-white leaves best in low light under the shade of other plants.¹

2. Named for Mayari, the Philippine goddess of the Moon, whose light is dimmer than her brother the Sun's; the white variegation is likened to the Moon's glow and phases.¹

3. Trade accounts say the originator found the plant as a single one-leaf, single-node cutting at a small plant show in Manila about ten years before it was named, and that every plant in circulation descends from it by cuttings.²

4. The registration gives the January 2026 issue of the IAS Newsletter as the place of publication.¹

STORY:

STORY TITLE: A moonlit sport from a Manila plant show

The plant that became 'Mayari' was a single one-leaf cutting that its originator, who has chosen to stay anonymous, found at a small plant show in Manila about ten years before it was named: a white-variegated sport of one of the forms of Scindapsus pictus. Every plant since has come from it by cuttings, and the white variegation has held in all of them.¹,² Melissa Travis named it in 2019 for Mayari, the Philippine goddess of the Moon, likening the plant's white markings to the Moon's glow and its phases.¹

REFERENCES:

1. International Aroid Society Aroid Cultivar Registry: Scindapsus pictus 'Mayari'

2. BC Plant Dad: Scindapsus 'Mayari'

Photographs submitted to the IAS Aroid Cultivar Registry by Melissa Travis