Mother plant · M15
Anthurium (papillilaminum × crystallinum) × Fort Sherman
House reference Sherman
Not for sale · her clones are
The specimen
Collected in Panama in the 1980s.
Fort Sherman is a papillilaminum clone collected in the 1980s by Jay Vannini near the US Army base of that name, at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal. It is known for an unusually elongated blade, deep velvet, and golden to reddish venation.
Crossing it back over papillilaminum x crystallinum concentrates those traits instead of diluting them.
Sherman shows pink to orange sectoring across the blade. From the Kidda line.
What is behind her
Where each trait comes from.
A cross is not a blend. Each parent decides different things, and knowing which one is responsible for what tells you a great deal about how a clone from her will grow out.
Anthurium papillilaminum
The backbone of modern velvet breeding, and the parent most likely to decide what a hybrid looks like. It comes from Panama and carries a long, elongated blade rather than a wide heart, with deep basal lobes that open rather than close. The surface is true matte velvet, so it absorbs light instead of reflecting it, and pale venation reads faintly in ambient light and sharply from the side. Petioles are round, which is part of why it crosses so readily with other round-petioled species. It brings substance, meaning the leaf feels thick and holds its shape as it hardens. Expect length over width, a matte finish rather than gloss, and a plant that gets noticeably better as it matures rather than peaking early.
Anthurium crystallinum
The venation parent. Crystallinum is grown for the bold silver to white veins that run across a dark velvet ground, and that contrast is the single trait it passes on most reliably. The leaf is a broad heart with a closed to slightly open sinus, held more upright than pendant. Where papillilaminum lengthens a leaf, crystallinum widens it. It also tends to speed things up, and hybrids carrying it often push leaves faster than the other parent would alone. Expect strong vein contrast, a rounder outline, and a plant that shows its quality early rather than making you wait three years for it.
Papillilaminum, Fort Sherman
A papillilaminum clone collected in the 1980s by Jay Vannini near Fort Sherman, the former US Army base at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal. It is one of the older documented clones still in circulation, and it is propagated rather than grown from seed, so every plant carrying the name traces back to that original collection. It is characterised by an unusually elongated blade even by papillilaminum standards, deep velvet, and venation that runs golden to reddish rather than silver. In a cross it concentrates length and warm venation. Expect a longer leaf than the species average and a warmer tone to the veins.
The photograph is not an illustration of what your plant might become. It is the specification.
What a clone from this mother is
Not a seedling. Not a cross. The same plant.
- Every specimen released under Sherman is a rooted clone taken from the plant on this page. No seed. No variation lottery.
- Genetically identical. Same variegation genetics, same leaf architecture, same growth habit.
- What you see above is what yours becomes.
- Grown in Sweden from propagation onward. No import shock between her and your plant.
All variegated aroids carry long-term reversion risk, and no grower can honestly promise otherwise. What you get is her exact genetics and her documented track record, not a guarantee about every future leaf.
Released from this mother
Her clones, when they exist.
She is not always in propagation. When a clone is ready it is listed here first.
See what is available nowNothing listed means nothing is ready. That is deliberate.
Tell me when Sherman produces.
One email, only about this mother, only when a clone from her is ready. Nothing else.
We keep a separate list per mother, so you only hear about the plants you asked about.
You are on the list for Sherman.
You will hear from us the day a clone from her is ready, before it goes public.
Released from this mother
Taken from Sherman.
Each of these is a rooted clone from the plant above. Same genetics, same leaf architecture, grown on here before release.
Availability changes without warning. Nothing here is reserved until checkout is complete.