Species · genus Goeppertia · Marantaceae
Pinstripe Calathea
Goeppertia sanderiana (Sander) Borchs. & S.Suárez
Also known as: Pinstripe Plant · Calathea ornata
Cultivars of G. sanderiana
The named forms growers keep — each with its own page, each honest about how much we know.
No named cultivars catalogued under G. sanderiana yet. When growers document a stable, named form, it earns its own page here.
Guide
The species-level account. Cultivar pages build on this and say where they differ.
A Peruvian Prayer Plant
Goeppertia sanderiana is a perennial member of the Marantaceae, the prayer-plant family, and has passed through the genus Calathea before settling into Goeppertia. It grows as an evergreen, rhizomatous clump-former, the sort of plant grown as much for its patterned foliage as anything else.
Source: Kew
Native to Northern Peru
This species is native to northern Peru, where it grows in the wet tropical biome. It has since been introduced beyond its native range into El Salvador and Honduras. Its history in cultivation runs deep, having first been described under the name Maranta sanderiana back in 1892 before later moves into Calathea and then Goeppertia.
Source: Kew
Clump-Forming, Patterned Foliage
Like others in its genus, this plant forms clumps of elliptic leaves that are often attractively patterned, the trait that has long made Goeppertia species popular as foliage plants. Flowers do appear on occasion, carried on racemes of small tubular blooms, though they are seldom seen in cultivation.
Source: RHS
Care recipe
The species record — the baseline every cultivar inherits unless it says otherwise.
Care notes are early — not yet verified
- Light
- ai:claude-opus-4-8
- Water
- ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d)
- Humidity
- ai:claude-opus-4-8
- Soil
- ai:claude-fable-5
- Care
- ai:claude-fable-5
Bright, indirect
≈ every 10 days
High
18–27 °C
Airy, moisture-retentive mix of peat/coir with perlite
Division of the rootball at repotting
Diluted balanced feed monthly through the growing season
Moderate
Rarely flowers indoors; grown for its pinstriped foliage
Non-toxic to cats & dogs
Prayer-plant family (Marantaceae). ASPCA lists Calathea insignis (= Goeppertia insignis) non-toxic; the genus is uniformly safe. This is where toxicity lives: every cultivar of this species inherits it and none can override it.
Reference images
Every image credited. Licenses link to their deeds.
PrimarySources: ai:claude-opus-4-8 · ai:claude-opus-4-8 (range 5-10d) · ai:claude-fable-5 · ASPCA
Kept true by its growers
Every fact here carries its source. Grow Pinstripe Calathea yourself? What you’ve observed — how it drinks, how it holds its color, a name that’s off — and a clear photo of your plant are exactly what keep this page honest. Contributions are reviewed before anything changes.
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