Anthurium ‘Black Widow®'

Anthurium ‘Black Widow® is an unusual Anthurium variant originally shared with a young Dr Jeff Block in the mid-1980s by Miami farming neighbour and friend Tim Anderson. DocBlock labeled this Anthurium as “STRIPES - TIM ANDERSON” simply due to its scarcity of lateral veins. Selective breeding over the next 40+ years revealed that this unique plant's scarcity in collections could be easily explained by its apparent recessive phenotype traits.
When first described on September 11, 2021, in an Instagram post photograph, DocBlock's teenage sons preferred to call this plant “Spider-Man” (after the Marvel Superhero character). Although this video's soundtrack is our nod to "Spidey,” our unique hybrid's form and vigor were ultimately registered as Anthurium ‘Black Widow®.
DocBlock has bred this rare Anthurium through multiple filial generations, selecting from among the relatively few cultivars expressing his two primary development goals: 1- to emphasize darker new emergent leaves and 2-to display clean longitudinal veins without lateral bridging.
More recently, DocBlock's breeding program selected an additional seed cultivar expressing a wider sinus to better showcase the positioning of a spider’s thin legs relative to its abdomen, which is located where the petiole’s leaf connection joins.
As 2024 concludes, several careful collectors have done their due diligence homework to curate stunning seedling hybrid selections, while other buyers (sometimes sight unseen) have accessed other 'Black Widow®' Anthurium phenotypes. Several have discovered this hybrid's recessive venation pattern’s expected variable penetrance.
The scarcity of Anthuriums showing this unique DocBlock® hybrid’s traits attest to the realities of recessive vein phenotypes encountered when produced by traditional seed propagation (Mendelian genetics).
Alternatively, this hybrid’s direct vegetative divisions by cuttings) or its cloning by advanced tissue culture techniques, is ultimately how Anthuriums by DocBlock® will affordably provide carefully curated collections with wonderfully exotic tropical ornamental plants!
Music: Spider-Man 2 Main Title
Danny Elfman (2004)
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