P. willinckii ‘Leonids’

Give it bright filtered daylight, such as a bright window with strong sun softened by a sheer curtain, or use a grow light indoors. Keep gentle air moving around the crown and hanging fronds.

A full-sized, strongly vertical P. willinckii selection in the documented mature mother images. A tall shield crown anchors very long, pale silver-green fertile fronds that project outward before cascading well below the mount. Long open primary axes and relatively sparse branching give the plant an airy, streaming silhouette rather than the compact outline of an extreme dwarf. No published measurements or authenticated original-clone description were located, so these are image-based horticultural observations, not fixed diagnostic dimensions.

The sterile fronds form a substantial outer shield and a conspicuous high crown. In the documented mature mother, the crown is tall, narrow to moderately broad, and deeply divided into upright lobes; older shields broaden and brown around the base. Crown height is also emphasized independently in Taiwanese commerce. Width, lobe depth, color, and seasonal posture vary with maturity and culture and have not been established as clone-exclusive traits.

Mature fertile fronds are pale silver-green, very long, and comparatively narrow. Their proximal axes emerge roughly horizontal to outward-upward, then curve strongly downward. Branching remains fairly open along much of the length before ending in narrow repeated forks; several tips curve or hook. The result is a flowing, shower-like curtain beneath the high crown. Spore offspring can vary and should not be expected to reproduce every proportion of the seed parent.

The most useful current recognition guide is the combination of a tall, strongly lobed shield crown; a substantial outer shield; and unusually long, narrow, open-branched fertile fronds that project outward and then hang deeply. This character suite is supported by nursery text and public mother-reference images but does not prove clonal identity. Light, watering, maturity, mounting angle, and seed-grown genetics can alter it.

2024

Leonids is also the English name of the annual Leonid meteor shower, whose meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Leo. Taiwanese plant sellers use 獅子座流星雨, the Traditional Chinese name for that meteor shower, for this selection. Japanese sellers write the plant name as レオニズ. Its long cascading fronds may resemble falling meteors, but no statement from the person who named the plant has been found, so the registry does not claim that the meteor shower was the intended inspiration.