Calathea ‘White Fusion’ – 6″ Pot

The history of the White Fusion Calathea is a story of love, loss, and redemption. The calathea orchid was first discovered in the early 1800s in the Dutch East Indies. At that time, it was thought to be a new species of orchid. In 1853, a botanist named Hans Schlechter collected some of these orchids and took them back to Germany. He later donated some of them to the Bavarian Royal Collection. In 1883, one of these orchids bloomed for the first time in Europe. It was at this point that scientists realized that this orchid was not a new species after all, but an hybrid between two existing orchids. Over the course of the next few decades, more and more of these white fusion orchids were discovered. By 1908, there were enough specimens to create a breeding program at the Botanical Garden in Berlin. However, World War I disrupted this effort and no hybrids were ever created. In 1978, two American collectors named Dick and Lynette Beresford traveled to Indonesia to collect orchids. While there, they happened to see some white fusion calathea