SCINDAPSUS PICTUS 'SILVER BABY'

ORIGIN:

Tristan Keil, Emma's Garden Growers, Suffolk County, New York; US Plant Patent PP35,151, 2023

CULTIVAR DESCRIPTION:

A semi-compact, trailing sport whose mature leaves are almost entirely silverish blue with a few slight greenish blotches on the upper surface and a silvery, iridescent sheen over the whole blade, against the green, small-spotted leaves of its parent.¹

NOTES:

STATUS - Not yet accepted by the International Aroid Society, though not merely a market name: the clone is established by a United States plant patent, which describes and fixes it. As of September 2026 the IAS Aroid Cultivar Registry holds no record of this name. A patent and a registration are different things.

1. Discovered in February 2021 as a naturally occurring whole-plant mutation of an unnamed, unpatented Scindapsus pictus grown from a cutting in a greenhouse in Suffolk County, New York, and propagated true to type by meristem tip cuttings from March 2021 through six generations; the patent was filed on 16 August 2022 and granted on 2 May 2023.¹

STORY:

STORY TITLE: Found in a Long Island greenhouse

The second Scindapsus ever patented in the United States was found in February 2021 by Tristan Keil in a commercial greenhouse in Suffolk County, New York, as a whole-plant sport of an unnamed, unpatented Scindapsus pictus that had itself been grown from a cutting. Where the parent had green leaves with small silver spots, the sport had leaves that were nearly all silver, a silverish blue with a few faint greenish blotches and an iridescent sheen over the whole surface, on a semi-compact trailing plant. Meristem tip cuttings taken from March 2021 carried the character through six generations, and the patent, PP35,151, was filed on August 16th, 2022, and granted on May 2nd, 2023, to Emma's Garden Growers under the name 'Silver Baby'.¹

It joined a market that had spent a century selecting the same species in the same direction. The nineteenth-century trade plant that became 'Argyraeus' carried a few silver spots; 'Exotica' and 'Silvery Ann' pushed the silver over half the leaf; 'Silver Baby' and the unpatented plants sold as 'Platinum' and 'Silver Cloud' take it almost to the whole blade, so that only hints of green remain.¹,²,³

REFERENCES:

1. Keil, T. 2023. Scindapsus plant named 'Silver Baby'. US Plant Patent PP35,151

2. Costa Farms plant finder: Platinum Scindapsus

3. Steve's Leaves: Scindapsus pictus 'Silver Cloud'

Plates from US Plant Patent PP35,151