Goeppertia 'Flamestar'

Goeppertia 'Flamestar' is a cultivar epithet placed within the genus Goeppertia Nees (Marantaceae) and attributed in horticultural sources to the species Goeppertia veitchiana (Veitch ex Hook.f.) Borchs. and S.Suárez. The Royal Horticultural Society plant database records this cultivar under entry 346879, cross-referencing Calathea 'Flamestar' to Goeppertia 'Flamestar' [1]. The combination Goeppertia veitchiana was published at Systematic Botany 37(3): 635 in 2012, when Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince transferred the great majority of Calathea species into Goeppertia after demonstrating that Calathea as previously circumscribed was polyphyletic [2]. The basionym Calathea veitchiana Veitch ex Hook.f. was first published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine 91: t. 5535 in 1865 [4]. Plants of the World Online at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew records the native range of Goeppertia veitchiana as Ecuador and characterises the plant as a perennial of the wet tropical biome [3]. The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy recognises Goeppertia veitchiana under species key 8146589, listing Calathea veitchiana Veitch ex Hook.f., Calathea veitchiana var. foxii Raffill, Maranta veitchiana (Veitch ex Hook.f.) Van Houtte, and Phyllodes veitchiana (Veitch ex Hook.f.) Kuntze as synonyms [4].

Cultivar epithet. The name 'Flamestar' occupies the cultivar-epithet class under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). The ICNCP requires a cultivar epithet to be enclosed in single quotation marks [5]; the correct written form is therefore Goeppertia 'Flamestar'. The RHS plant database entry 346879 records this epithet and cross-references the synonym Calathea 'Flamestar', which circulates in the horticultural trade [1].

Trade designation. No trade designation has been located for this cultivar in any primary source searched. The RHS plant database entry 346879 records no trade designation [1], and no plant patent document mentioning a trade designation has been located.

Patent denomination. No patent denomination has been located. No U.S. plant patent, no European Community Plant Variety Right, and no other intellectual property instrument bearing a denomination for 'Flamestar' has been found in searches conducted on 2026-08-12. The registry records patent_number as null and patent_status as unresolved, consistent with this absence.

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

No namer, seed parent, pollen parent, derivation, year of establishment, place of origin, or date of first propagation is recorded in any primary source located during research conducted on 2026-08-12. No primary record establishing an originator, a parentage cross, or a date of origin has been located through the RHS plant database, Plants of the World Online, or the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy [1][3][4]. This gap is a documented structural characteristic of the great majority of cultivars in this family: no International Cultivar Registration Authority has been appointed for Marantaceae, and the absence of a formal register means that cultivar-level provenance data is structurally unavailable for most named selections [5].

No International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) has been appointed for Marantaceae. The International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) maintains the list of appointed ICRAs for cultivated plants under the ICNCP; Marantaceae does not appear on that list [5]. In the absence of an appointed authority for this family, there is no formal register against which 'Flamestar' can be checked, no registration number, and no registration date [5].

The RHS plant database entry 346879 functions as a horticultural reference record, not a registration record in the ICNCP sense [1]. Digital Towns is an applicant for ICRA status for Marantaceae and an aggregator of nomenclatural evidence; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operating under the ISHS or any appointed registration authority.

The primary sources locatable for this cultivar are the RHS plant database entry 346879, which records the cultivar epithet and genus cross-reference but supplies no diagnostic characters, parentage, registration reference, or originator data [1]; the 2012 Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince paper in Systematic Botany, which establishes the accepted combination Goeppertia veitchiana [2]; Plants of the World Online at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which records the accepted species name, native range, and synonymy [3]; and the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy entry for Goeppertia veitchiana (species key 8146589), which confirms the accepted name, authority, and full synonymy [4].

No primary taxonomic source has been located that formally circumscribes 'Flamestar' as a distinct cultivar, defines its diagnostic characters, or distinguishes it from other Goeppertia veitchiana cultivars by reference to a type specimen or a registration standard. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed.