Maranta leuconeura 'Kerchoviana'
Rabbit's foot prayer plant · Rabbit tracks · Prayer plant
- Family
- Marantaceae
- Native to
- Central and eastern Brazil (the species)
- Habit
- Rhizomatous perennial
- Also known as
- Maranta leuconeura var. kerchoveana É.Morren
Where it comes from
The species is Brazilian — central and eastern, in Kew’s regions.1 This plant, like its red-veined sibling, is a selection that has only ever been recorded in cultivation.
Naming and description
Also not a variety. Kew accepts Maranta leuconeura É.Morren and no infraspecific taxa; var. kerchoveana is in the synonymsynonymA botanical name that is no longer the accepted one for a plant, usually because the same species was described twice. Old books and plant labels are full of them.Glossary list.12
There is a wrinkle worth setting out, because a casual check looks like a contradiction. Two different names share this spelling. Kew tracks M. leuconeura var. kerchoveana É.Morren, Ann. Bot. Hort. 29: 77 (1879), and files it as a synonymsynonymA botanical name that is no longer the accepted one for a plant, usually because the same species was described twice. Old books and plant labels are full of them.Glossary.2 IPNIIPNIThe International Plant Names Index. It records where and when a name was published, without ruling on whether it is the accepted one — that is POWO's job.Glossary’s only record is a different name — Petersen, in Fl. Bras. 3(3): 151 (1890) — and Kew has no entry for it at all.3 Both roads end in the same place: no accepted name at varietal rank. UF/IFAS has written it as ‘Kerchoviana’ in cultivarcultivarA plant selected and propagated by people rather than described from the wild. Written in single quotes after the species — Monstera deliciosa 'Thai Constellation' — and never italicised.Glossary quotes since 1991,4 which is the form this page uses.
The RHSRHSThe Royal Horticultural Society. Its plant register and its Award of Garden Merit are among the few horticultural authorities worth citing.Glossary disagrees and says so plainly: it presents var. kerchoveana with name status “Correct”, and gives it the Award of Garden Merit.5 That is a horticultural authority keeping a useful name alive, not an error — but Kew governs the binomial here.
The leaf is plain grey-green with a row of dark blotches either side of the midrib. Those blotches are what “rabbit tracks” and “rabbit’s foot” describe5 — the names are about the markings, not the movement, and this plant has nothing to do with the rabbit’s foot fern.
Fun facts
- It shrugged off four days at 36 °F (2 °C). UF/IFAS stored twenty-two foliage plants at 36, 41 and 46 °F (2, 5 and 8 °C) for up to four days, and this exact clonecloneEvery plant propagated by cutting or division from one original, and so genetically identical to it. Most named cultivars are a single clone.Glossary recorded no damage at any condition, rated excellent two weeks later.6 That is dark shipping tolerance rather than a growing recommendation, and it should not be extended to the red-veined plant, which was not tested. But if yours arrived in winter looking sorry for itself, the delivery van probably was not the problem.
- ‘Fascinator’ started out as a species. Kew lists Maranta fascinator L.Linden & Rodigas (1894) and Calathea fascinator (L.Linden & Rodigas) L.H.Bailey (1900) among the synonymssynonymA botanical name that is no longer the accepted one for a plant, usually because the same species was described twice. Old books and plant labels are full of them.Glossary of M. leuconeura1 — so the trade name everyone uses for the red-veined plant is a nineteenth-century binomial that got demoted. Which plant it actually refers to is now unclear: the trade sells ‘Fascinator’ as the red-veined one, while the RHSRHSThe Royal Horticultural Society. Its plant register and its Award of Garden Merit are among the few horticultural authorities worth citing.Glossary files it under var. leuconeura.7
- Yellow line patterns are not a new variegatedvariegationPatches of leaf with little or no chlorophyll, so they read as white, cream or yellow. The pale tissue cannot feed itself, which is why a variegated plant grows more slowly than a plain one.Glossary form. Cucumber mosaic virus produces bright yellow lines on prayer plant leaves that look exactly like something a nursery would charge extra for. There is no cure.4
- Nobody has actually assessed a prayer plant for pet toxicity. The ASPCA is what everyone cites, and it has two relevant pages — one titled “Prayer Plant” and one titled “Maranta”. Both give their scientific name as Calathea insignis.89 There is no ASPCA record whose scientific-name field names a Maranta at all. It gets worse: Kew does not accept Calathea insignis either, resolving it elsewhere in the family.10 The practical answer is almost certainly still “harmless” — both pages say non-toxic, and NC State’s entry for this plant carries no poison section — but the citation everyone reaches for does not cover the genusgenusThe rank above species: a group of species close enough to share a name. Monstera and Philodendron are genera; the first word of a botanical name is the genus.Glossary.
Care
- Light
- Bright shade or dappled light, never direct sun. Commercial production runs at 1,000-2,500 foot-candles (roughly 10,800-26,900 lux) under glass, and NC State calls the plant intolerant of direct sunlight — the leaves bleach and the markings wash out.
- Water
- Evenly moist through the growing season, drier through winter, and never sodden; root rot follows poor drainage more reliably than anything else. On water quality, see the note below: the usual distilled-water advice is aimed at the wrong input.
- Humidity
- High — the one published figure is NYBG's "well above 50%", and everything else at this level of source is qualitative. NC State calls it intolerant of low humidity. Dry air shows as crisp brown margins, and brings spider mites with it.
- Temperature
- 70-80 °F (21-27 °C) is ideal for growth, with acceptable growth up to about 90 °F (32 °C) and poor growth above it. NYBG puts the winter floor at 55 °F (13 °C). Cold shipping is less of a risk than it sounds — see the problems list.
- Substrate
- A peat-based mix, well aerated but moisture-retentive, at pH 5.5-6.0, with dolomite. Shallow and wide suits the rhizome better than deep.
- Fertilizer
- A balanced liquid feed at half strength every second or third watering in growth, nothing in winter. The production rate is 2.3 lb of nitrogen from a 3-1-2 ratio per 1,000 sq ft per month, which is a greenhouse figure and not a windowsill dose.
- Propagation
- Division of the rhizome, or single-node and double-node stem cuttings — the commercial method, two or three cuttings to a small pot. Both are easy; this is not a difficult plant to increase.
- Dormancy
- None that anyone has documented. No extension service, botanic garden or RHS page describes a rest period for this genus — what they describe is a watering adjustment through the darker months. It slows; it does not sleep.
- Common problems
-
- Crisp brown leaf tips and margins are the signature complaint. Penn State names phosphate fertiliser, fluoride toxicity and high light as the causes, and its fix is to avoid superphosphate and perlite rather than to change the water
- Spider mites are the defining pest in dry air. Watch also for the tarsonemid mite Steneotarsonemus furcatus: distorted new growth with no webbing at all is that one, not the usual suspect
- Root and rhizome rot in a mix that stays wet, especially in winter
- Bright yellow line patterns are cucumber mosaic virus, not desirable variegation, and there is no cure
- Leaves that stop folding at night usually mean too little light during the day, since the movement is driven by a clock that needs light cues to stay set
- Faded, washed-out markings mean too much light — the opposite problem, and the commonest way to spoil a good plant