Overview
Goeppertia roseopicta 'Medallion' is a cultivar selection within Goeppertia roseopicta (Linden ex Lem.) Borchs. & S.Suárez, an accepted species of Marantaceae. Plants of the World Online (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) records the native range of the species as western South America to western Brazil and places it in the wet tropical biome [1]. Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder further specifies the species as native to tropical areas along the upper Amazon in northwestern Brazil, noting its cultivation in wet tropics and subtropics in shaded areas for its ornamental foliage [4].
No primary record, whether a plant patent, a formal registration document, or a peer-reviewed description, has been located that furnishes a diagnostic character statement for 'Medallion' specifically. The Digital Towns registry records distinguishing_traits as null and verified_against_primary as false for this cultivar record [3].
Names and Name Classes
Three name classes are relevant to any cultivar record: the registered cultivar epithet, any trade designation, and any patent denomination. Each is treated separately below.
Cultivar epithet. The epithet 'Medallion' is recorded by the Digital Towns registry as a name in trade use applied to a selection of Goeppertia roseopicta. No primary registration document has been located, and the registry name row carries verified_against_primary = false [3]. The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants requires a cultivar epithet to be enclosed in single quotation marks; the correct written form is therefore Goeppertia roseopicta 'Medallion'. The denomination class recorded in the Digital Towns registry for Goeppertia cultivars is 'goeppertia' [3].
Trade synonym under Calathea. The trade continues to circulate this plant under the name Calathea roseopicta 'Medallion', reflecting the still-widespread commercial use of Calathea as a trade name for the genus [1]. Plants of the World Online records Calathea roseopicta (Linden ex Lem.) Regel as a heterotypic synonym of the accepted name, so the combination under Calathea is nomenclaturally superseded [1].
Trade designation. No trade designation distinct from the cultivar epithet has been identified in any primary record examined.
Patent denomination. No patent denomination has been located for 'Medallion'. A search of USPTO plant patent records citing Calathea roseopicta or Goeppertia roseopicta as the species returned patents for other named cultivars ('TWYCA0043', 'HGV09' and 'TWYCA0026') but none for 'Medallion' [5]. The patent for the cultivar denominated 'HGV09' (USPP21978) explicitly identifies 'Medallion' as an unpatented commercial variety used as a parent in that patent's breeding work, confirming that 'Medallion' was in trade use before the grant date of USPP21978 but establishing no denomination or ownership for 'Medallion' itself [5].
Taxonomy of the Parent Species
The basionym of the accepted species is Maranta roseopicta Linden ex Lem., published in Annales d'Horticulture Belge et Etrangere 16: 202 in 1866 [1]. Regel transferred it to Calathea as Calathea roseopicta (Linden ex Lem.) Regel, published in Index Seminum (LE, Petropolitanus) 1868(Suppl.): 12 (1869, published 1870), and Kuntze placed it in Phyllodes as Phyllodes roseopicta (Linden ex Lem.) Kuntze in Revisiones Generum Plantarum 2: 695 (1891) [1].
The current combination, Goeppertia roseopicta (Linden ex Lem.) Borchs. & S.Suárez, was published by Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince in 2012 in Systematic Botany 37(3): 620-635, as part of a revision that transferred 246 species from Calathea to Goeppertia following molecular phylogenetic analysis demonstrating that Calathea as previously circumscribed was polyphyletic [2].
Origin and Authorship
No originator is documented. This cultivar predates any registration authority for Marantaceae.
The Digital Towns registry records originator as null, originator_unknown as true, seed_parent and pollen_parent as null, year_established as null, and origin_place and origin_date as null [3]. No plant patent has been located that would establish an inventor, parentage, place or date of origin for this cultivar. USPP21978 describes 'Medallion' as unpatented, confirming the absence of patent protection but providing no further information about its origin [5].
Limited public data available; further research needed.
Intellectual Property and Registration Status
No plant patent for Goeppertia roseopicta 'Medallion' has been located in USPTO records. The registry records patent_number as null, patent_status as not recorded, and patent_expires_on as null [3]. The three plant patents identified in a search of USPTO records for this species (USPP19275, USPP21978 and USPP20061) each cover a different cultivar and none names 'Medallion' as its denomination [5].
No International Cultivar Registration Authority has been appointed for Marantaceae. The International Society for Horticultural Science maintains the list of appointed cultivar registration authorities, and Marantaceae does not appear on it [3]. Because no authority exists for this family, the epithet 'Medallion' has never been formally registered with any authority. The registry fields registration_authority, registration_ref and registration_date are all null [3]. Digital Towns is an applicant and an aggregator and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operating under the International Society for Horticultural Science or any appointed cultivar registration authority.