Overview
Goeppertia zebrina 'Humilior' is a cultivar name applied in trade to a form of the accepted species Goeppertia zebrina (Sims) Nees, an evergreen rhizomatous perennial in the family Marantaceae. The basionym is Maranta zebrina Sims, published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine 44: t. 1926 in 1817; Nees transferred it to Goeppertia in Linnaea 6: 337 in 1831, establishing the combination Goeppertia zebrina (Sims) Nees [1]. The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, sourcing from the Catalogue of Life, records that combination as the currently accepted name for this species [2]. The North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox records the species as native to the tropical rainforests of Brazil, cultivated as a houseplant in temperate regions, and as a recipient of the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society; that record does not distinguish a form called 'Humilior' from the species at large [3].
Names
Three name classes apply to cultivated plants under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants: the registered cultivar epithet, any trade designation, and any patent denomination.
Registered cultivar epithet. The epithet in current use is 'Humilior'. The ICNCP requires that a cultivar epithet be enclosed in single quotation marks, giving the form Goeppertia zebrina 'Humilior'. The epithet derives from an infraspecific botanical name published under a different nomenclatural code: Calathea zebrina var. humilior Körn., published by Friedrich August Körnicke in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou 35(I): 131 in 1862 [1]. Because that name was circumscribed as a botanical variety before the ICNCP existed, it does not itself constitute a cultivar registration in the modern sense. No formal cultivar description distinguishing 'Humilior' from other forms of Goeppertia zebrina has been located in any peer-reviewed taxonomic source or official cultivar register consulted for this page.
Trade designation. No trade designation separate from the cultivar epithet 'Humilior' has been located in any authoritative source consulted for this page.
Patent denomination. No plant patent denomination applies to this entity. No USPTO plant patent for a plant under this epithet has been located.
Origin
No originator is documented — this cultivar predates any registration authority for Marantaceae.
The earliest primary record in which the epithet appears is Körnicke's 1862 publication in the Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou, placing first botanical use of the name more than 160 years before any formal cultivar registration system existed for this family [1]. No parentage, selection event, place of origin, or breeder identity is recorded in any primary botanical or horticultural source consulted for this page.
Taxonomic status of the epithet
The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, sourcing from the Catalogue of Life, treats Calathea zebrina var. humilior Körn. as a heterotypic synonym of the accepted species Goeppertia zebrina (Sims) Nees — a synonym of the species at large rather than a name denoting a distinct accepted infraspecific taxon [2]. The Wikispecies record for Goeppertia zebrina lists numerous heterotypic synonyms accumulated since the original description, including variety names applied to forms of the plant across the 19th and early 20th centuries, among which the Körnicke variety appears [1]. No currently citable taxonomic source establishes morphological limits separating 'Humilior' from the type of the species. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed.
Registration and nomenclatural context
No International Cultivar Registration Authority has been appointed for Marantaceae. The International Society for Horticultural Science maintains a list of appointed International Cultivar Registration Authorities by genus and family; Marantaceae and the genus Goeppertia do not appear on it [4]. The absence of an appointed authority means that no official register of Goeppertia cultivar names exists against which 'Humilior' can be checked for prior registration or for compliance with ICNCP requirements. The Digital Towns registry carries the epithet as nomenclatural evidence of first use — the Körnicke 1862 varietal publication — following the same practice used by established checklists to document dated first use of a name. That row is not a cultivar registration and does not constitute one.