Hosta 'Gold Vein'

This cultivar of unidentified parentage was originated by Eric Smith of England and was registered on his behalf by the British Hosta and Hemerocallis Society in 1988 but this was retracted in 2017 (see below).

According to The Hostapedia by Mark Zilis (2009), "Though this plant was registered...it was done without a submitted description."

In a presentation at the Winter Scientific Meeting in 2004, Peter Ruh stated that there is no such plant. The BHHS was registering all of Eric Smith's Tardiana hostas but they were all just known by names such as TF2x7. As they went through the list, one in the sequence was missing so they gave it a name to hold a place in the registration process. Subsequently, it was determined that no such plant existed.



The Hosta Journal (2018 Vol. 49 No. R) states that, "Names governed by the Code are not established if, at the time of publication, no plants for which the name is proposed existed." Since there is no evidence that this plant ever existed, it has been removed from the list of registered hostas. To avoid confusion, this name will be unavailable for future registrations.





Wow, this is interesting. The whole idea of registering a cultivar is to have a description of the plant on record at a central place. Oh, well!

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