Goeppertia pearcei

Goeppertia pearcei (Rusby) Borchs. & S.Suárez is an accepted species of the family Marantaceae in the genus Goeppertia Nees. The GBIF Backbone Taxonomy records the species under this name at key 9304665, with the combination authority attributed to Finn Borchsenius, Sandra Suárez and Lena Prince [1]. The basionym is Calathea pearcei Rusby, named for the American botanist Henry Hurd Rusby, and the species continues to be encountered in the trade under that synonym [1].

Goeppertia Nees is the largest genus in Marantaceae, with approximately 260 accepted species as recorded in the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy [1]. The genus as currently circumscribed is the product of the 2012 revision by Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince, published in Systematic Botany 37(3): 620–635, which transferred 246 species from Calathea G.Mey. to Goeppertia following molecular phylogenetic evidence that Calathea as previously circumscribed was polyphyletic [2]. Goeppertia pearcei is one of the species placed within the redefined genus by that revision. The registry records the species as in cultivation, with no cultivar names assigned to it.

The accepted name Goeppertia pearcei (Rusby) Borchs. & S.Suárez was published in Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince (2012), Systematic Botany 37(3): 620–635, the paper that simultaneously established or confirmed 246 new combinations transferring species from Calathea G.Mey. to Goeppertia Nees [2]. The combination authorship '(Rusby) Borchs. & S.Suárez' is confirmed by the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy at key 9304665 [1]. The parenthetical element of the authority records that the original description was published by Henry Hurd Rusby under the name Calathea pearcei Rusby, which is the basionym.

The registry records two names for this entity: the accepted epithet Goeppertia pearcei (Rusby) Borchs. & S.Suárez, sourced to the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, and the synonym Calathea pearcei Rusby, sourced to the 2012 Systematic Botany paper [1][2]. No other synonyms are recorded in the registry for this species. The synonym Calathea pearcei Rusby carries resolution status resolved and remains in continued horticultural use [1].

The specific publication locator for Rusby's original description of Calathea pearcei, comprising the volume, page and year of the protologue, has not been retrieved from a publicly accessible primary record in this research cycle. Limited public data available; further research needed on the exact protologue locator for the basionym.

The diagnostic morphological characters of Goeppertia pearcei as stated in a primary taxonomic source have not been retrieved in this research cycle. The full text of the 2012 Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince revision in Systematic Botany 37(3): 620–635, which is the load-bearing taxonomic reference for the combination, was not accessible in a form that yielded species-level morphological descriptions for G. pearcei specifically [2]. Rusby's original protologue for Calathea pearcei was similarly not retrieved.

At the genus level, members of Goeppertia are rhizomatous perennial herbs characterised by the asymmetric leaf blade that is a defining feature of the broader family Marantaceae, as documented in the 2012 revision [2]. Species-level diagnostic characters distinguishing G. pearcei from congeners require access to the full text of the 2012 revision or the original Rusby protologue. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed on species-level morphological circumscription.

The Digital Towns registry records the native range and habitat of Goeppertia pearcei as null; no authoritative range statement has been retrieved from a primary record for this species in this research cycle. The Plants of the World Online species page for G. pearcei was not directly retrieved in a form yielding range data.

Contextual evidence from a cognate record is available: Plants of the World Online records the Rusby-authored Goeppertia stromanthifolia (Rusby) Borchs. & S.Suárez as native to Bolivia and growing in the wet tropical biome [3]. Henry Hurd Rusby conducted extensive botanical collection work in Bolivia, and several species bearing his authority in Goeppertia share that provenance. This contextual evidence is not a confirmed range statement for G. pearcei; it documents a pattern among Rusby-described Marantaceae and is presented here solely as background. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed on the documented native range and biome of G. pearcei specifically.

No conservation status assessment for this species has been retrieved from a primary record in this research cycle. Goeppertia pearcei carries no plant patent and is not a registered cultivar; it is a wild taxon without statutory intellectual-property protection.

The Digital Towns registry records in_cultivation as true for Goeppertia pearcei. The species continues to be listed in the trade under the basionym synonym Calathea pearcei Rusby, which the registry records as in continued horticultural use [1]. As a member of Goeppertia, the species belongs to a genus whose members are grown as ornamental foliage plants in tropical and subtropical horticulture. The 2012 revision by Borchsenius, Suárez and Prince notes the broad horticultural interest in the group as context for the nomenclatural clarification the paper undertook [2].

No authoritative botanical garden publication, university extension document, or peer-reviewed cultivation study for G. pearcei specifically has been retrieved in this research cycle. Limited authoritative sources available; further research needed on cultivation documentation from botanic garden or extension publications.

No cultivar names are recorded in the Digital Towns registry for this species.

No International Cultivar Registration Authority has been appointed for Marantaceae. The International Cultivar Registration Authority system is administered by the International Society for Horticultural Science, which assigns registration responsibility to organisations willing to maintain a checklist for a given genus or family. The ISHS list of appointed registration authorities, as accessed in 2026, records no appointment for Marantaceae [4]. The United States National Arboretum ICRA directory, maintained as a reference resource, similarly records no appointed authority for this family [5].

The Digital Towns registry records icra_authority as null and dt_is_icra as false for Goeppertia, consistent with this absence [1]. In the absence of an appointed authority, cultivar names in Goeppertia and the broader family Marantaceae lack a formal registration mechanism under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. Goeppertia pearcei is a wild species for which no cultivar names are recorded in the registry; the ICRA gap is therefore relevant to the genus as a whole but does not affect the nomenclatural status of the species itself. Digital Towns documents names in this family as a taxonomic aggregation exercise and does not claim the standing of an appointed registration authority.