'Argentea' · ← Goeppertia Updated 2026-08-13

GOEPPERTIA

Goeppertia picturata 'Argentea'

A clump-forming perennial of Marantaceae carrying the RHS Award of Garden Merit — its silver-white leaves document the cultivar epithet 'Argentea' in form.

Overview

Goeppertia picturata 'Argentea' is a cultivar of Goeppertia picturata (K.Koch & Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez, the accepted botanical name confirmed by the International Plant Names Index and Plants of the World Online [1][2]. The combination was published by Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince on 25 June 2012 in Systematic Botany 37(3): 633, as part of a revision demonstrating that Calathea as previously circumscribed was polyphyletic and producing 246 new combinations [3]. Plants of the World Online records the native range of the species as Brazil — the states of Amazonas, Tocantins, and Acre — within the wet tropical biome [2].

The Royal Horticultural Society describes 'Argentea' as a clump-forming, evergreen rhizomatous perennial with elliptic, silvery white leaves edged with dark green margins, noting that racemes of small tubular flowers are seldom produced in cultivation [4]. The RHS common name on record is silver variegated calathea, and the Society has awarded this cultivar its Award of Garden Merit (AGM), given following trial and assessment to plants considered excellent for ordinary use in appropriate conditions and essentially stable in form and colour [4].

Nomenclature and Name Classes

Three distinct name classes apply to cultivated plants under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP): the registered cultivar epithet, any trade designation, and any patent denomination.

Registered cultivar epithet. The epithet 'Argentea' is the name by which this cultivar is recorded in the RHS Plant Finder [4]. The ICNCP requires a cultivar epithet to be enclosed in single quotation marks — hence 'Argentea', not Argentea in italics [5]. No protologue or formal registration document establishing the epithet has been located, and the date and authority of its first publication remain undocumented. The epithet derives from the Latin argenteus, meaning 'silvery', reflecting the leaf surface that distinguishes this selection from other cultivars of the species, notably 'Vandenheckei' [4].

Trade designation. No trade designation has been documented for this cultivar. The RHS Plant Finder lists the cultivar under the epithet alone, without a trade name [4].

Patent denomination. No plant patent bearing a denomination equivalent to 'Argentea' applied to Goeppertia picturata was located in the USPTO database. No patent denomination is therefore established for this cultivar.

Origin and Authorship

No originator is documented — this cultivar predates any registration authority for Marantaceae.

No parentage record, no date of first selection, no place of origin, and no namer are documented in any primary source located during research. The RHS Plant Finder entry makes no attribution of originator or namer [4]. Plants of the World Online confirms that Goeppertia picturata is native to Brazil [2], establishing the geographic source of the wild type; whether 'Argentea' arose from material collected in Brazil or from greenhouse selection elsewhere is not documented. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed.

Registration Context

No International Cultivar Registration Authority has been appointed for Marantaceae. The ISHS Commission on Cultivar Registration and Nomenclature appoints ICRAs and monitors their work; its published list of appointed authorities does not include any organisation designated for Marantaceae, Goeppertia, or Calathea [5]. As a consequence, no formal registration system exists for cultivar epithets in this family, and no body holds authority to adjudicate priority, synonymy, or the validity of epithets such as 'Argentea'.

Digital Towns is an applicant aggregator for this family. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operating under ISHS or any appointed ICRA. This registry records what authoritative sources document; it does not itself confer registration status on any cultivar epithet.

Documentation

The primary taxonomic authority for the accepted name is the IPNI record (LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60461183-2), which records the combination date, publication collation, and authority string [1]. The underlying revision is Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince (2012) in Systematic Botany 37(3): 620–635, which places G. picturata at page 633 [3]. Plants of the World Online accepts the name and supplies the native range and biome classification [2].

The sole institutional cultivar-level record located during research is the RHS Plant Finder entry (record 357228), which documents the cultivar epithet, the AGM designation, the morphological description, the H1A hardiness rating, the common name, and cultivation requirements including frost-free conditions and a minimum temperature of 16°C [4]. No peer-reviewed paper, botanic garden monograph, or plant patent specifically addressing 'Argentea' was located. The distinguishing traits field in the Digital Towns registry carries no entry because no formal registration document or plant patent describing diagnostic characters has been found. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed.

Registry record

The entries below are the registry rows this article is written from. Each carries its own source, its role, and both dates. A row recorded as nomenclatural evidence is dated documentation of a name in use and is never cited in the prose above.

Registry card

Goeppertia picturata 'Argentea' is a cultivar of the Marantaceae species Goeppertia picturata (K.Koch & Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez, recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society with an Award of Garden Merit for its predominantly silver-white leaf surface edged in dark green. No originator, registration authority, or patent is documented for this cultivar.

Genus
Goeppertia
Species
picturata
Classification
not recorded
Originator
not documented
Established
not documented
Patent
none on record

Name classes

Three name classes with three different legal statuses attach to a cultivated plant: the registered cultivar epithet (governed by the ICNCP, printed in single quotes), any trade designation (a marketing name or trademark, never printed in single quotes), and the patent denomination (the name as published in a plant patent). Conflating them is the most common error in horticultural writing, and it is the one this registry exists to prevent.

NameClassSource
Argentea Accepted evidence only Digital Towns registry — name in trade use, source verification pending (2026-08-11)
Placeholder record. No authoritative source for this cultivar has been located; Marantaceae has no ICRA and no register. Not citable in prose and does not count toward the indexing threshold. To be replaced by a sourced record from the USPTO -> journals -> dated-catalog research pass.

Origin and parentage

This registry has not located significant documentation to substantiate the origin of this name. No originator, introduction date, or registration record has been found in any source examined — no cultivar registration authority exists for Marantaceae that could have recorded one.

No independent dated documentation has been located to date. What this registry holds is its own record of the name in commercial use, 2026-08-11 — not third-party documentation.

This record is maintained openly and updates as documentation is located. Documented evidence of this cultivar's origin — dated catalogues, listings, or publications — can be submitted for verification.

Patent and propagation status

No plant patent is recorded for this cultivar in this registry. That is not the same as a positive finding that none exists: absence here means we have not located one.

Sources

  1. Goeppertia picturata (K.Koch & Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez — IPNI record urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60461183-2. International Plant Names Index. (2012-06-25). International Plant Names Index (IPNI) — Royal Botanic Gardens Kew / Harvard University Herbaria / Australian National Herbarium. https://www.ipni.org/n/60461183-2 Accessed 2026-08-12.
  2. Goeppertia picturata (K.Koch & Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez — Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (n.d.). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Plants of the World Online. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:60461183-2 Accessed 2026-08-12.
  3. Borchsenius, F., Suárez, S. & Prince, L.M. (2012). Molecular phylogeny and redefined generic limits of Calathea (Marantaceae). Systematic Botany 37(3): 620–635. (2012-06-25). Systematic Botany — American Society of Plant Taxonomists. https://doi.org/10.1600/036364412X648571 Accessed 2026-08-12.
  4. Goeppertia picturata 'Argentea' — RHS Plant Finder record 357228. Royal Horticultural Society. (n.d.). Royal Horticultural Society. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/357228/goeppertia-picturata-argentea/details Accessed 2026-08-12.
  5. Cultivar Registration — ISHS Commission on Cultivar Registration and Nomenclature. International Society for Horticultural Science. (n.d.). International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). https://ishs.org/scientific-structure/cmnr-cultivar-registration/ Accessed 2026-08-12.

DIGITAL TOWNS REGISTRY · PLANTS · REVIEWED 2026-08-13