Anthurium carlablackiae RA17

Anthurium carlablackiae ‘RA 17’ is another beautiful plant from Rory Antolakii’s carlablackiae collection. It is a strong grower with dark leaves and some of the most intricate venation of any of the RA carlablackiae I grow.

RA stands for Rory Antolakii, who collected and introduced a number of wild carlablackiae and other Anthurium into the US. The carlablackiae are numbered RA 1 through RA 20, with some being wild-collected plants and others grown from seed that Rory collected in the wild.

What I like most about RA 17 is the veins. The leaves are dark and nicely shaped, but instead of the cleaner, more widely spaced veins you see on plants like RA 10, RA 17 has a much denser network of veins across the leaf.

There are a lot of secondary veins that branch off and connect between the primary veins, giving the leaves an almost web-like appearance. It is quite different from a lot of the other carlablackiae I grow and makes RA 17 very easy to recognize.

It is also a really good grower and consistently puts out nice leaves. Between the dark leaves, vigorous growth and intricate venation, RA 17 is another great example of the variation you can find within Anthurium carlablackiae.