Besseae aff. 'Fledermaus': The Plant That Made Us Look Twice

Behind the breeding · Dr. Yichao Liu

Before there was a name, there was one seedling that made us look twice.

In December 2024, among hundreds of Anthurium besseae aff. seedlings, we noticed an individual with an unusual combination of traits: an open sinus, ruffled leaf margins and exceptionally bold veins. It was still young. Its mature shape was not yet clear. But we spot there was enough promise to set it aside, give it a place in our dedicated collection and watch what happened next.

For a long time, we just called this seedling Besseae aff. with potential of ‘wide sinus’, and later in 2025 it owns the name ‘Fledermaus’ — its development started gaining increasingly worldwide attention in a few months and helped shape new breeding directions at Secret Foliage and potentially the future anthurium community. 

A discovery that needed time

These original photographs capture Fledermaus while it was still young, at the stage it does not have a name yet and we shared in our Instagram story on 13 March 2025 as “Besseae aff. wide form.” Its broad upper outline and clear, pale venation were already visible, while the strongly ruffled mature silhouette was still developing. Now you can still look back on our historical story at Instagram highlights.

Little did we know that, just a few months later, this young plant would become a foundation of our future breeding lines.

Selecting a young plant is the beginning of a question:  Will the features that catch your eye remain as it grows? Will the next leaf repeat them, soften them or reveal something unexpected?

With Fledermaus, each new leaf made the answer more interesting. The sinus— the indentation between the upper lobes—became increasingly open, then almost flat. Eventually, the upper outline developed what we describe as a negative sinus: instead of a familiar inward notch, it gave the leaf a broad, outward-reaching profile.

The margins became more strongly ruffled. Bright veins radiated across the dark, velvety surface. Together with the long, tapering tip, these features created the bat-wing silhouette that would become its signature.

Most encouragingly, the combination persisted through successive leaves. These were traits we could follow as the plant matured, rather than a single unusual leaf we hoped to see again.

Fledermaus is German for “bat.” For us, the name captures the spread of the upper lobes, the movement in the margins and the dramatic outline of the leaf.

August 2025: the first inflorescence

In August 2025, less than a year after its selection, Fledermaus reached cataphyll stage and produced its first inflorescence. That was an important turning point: we could begin exploring its potential as a breeding parent.

Since that first flowering, Fledermaus has flowered continuously in our care, giving us repeated opportunities to work with it. Its inflorescence comes out from the stem of every mature leaf nonstop - this make it extremely suitable for the breeding purpose as a strong mother plant. Its vigour has made it especially valuable: we can revisit our breeding questions across successive flowering cycles, rather than relying on limited opportunities.

The photograph below brings the foliage and the final-stage inflorescence together. Thomas (the owner of Secret Foliage who later named Fledermaus) holds the plant beside its upright, orange-toned spadix and the slender, pink-toned spathe curving away beneath it. Against the dark leaves and bright veins, the contrast is striking. It also shows the mature leaf outline in the context of the whole plant.

First Fledermaus hybrid - experimenting with a contrasting round-leaf anthurium 

From September 2025 onward, we created separate and dedicated breeding lines for Fledermaus in our breeding program. The first successful hybrid was created behind the below rationale: 

1) Instead of using another flat-sinus anthurium, we decided to choose a round-leaf anthurium with a clear intention. For instance, the seed mother crystallinum ('black' × 'red') has very round leaf-shape as shown in the below photo which is a perfect material for this exploration and experiment. Furthermore, crystallinum type of anthurium has strong genetic influence on the offspring, which is often dominant in the hybridization (that’s also the reason that you barely see flat-sinus crystallinum hybrid). By pairing with this round-leaf crystallinum, we are able to experiment how promising the contrasting Fledermaus traits can be inherited in the offspring, and

 2) how the coloration and traits of red crystallinum are paired with this besseae aff. In general, crystallinum is a wonderful match with the besseae aff. as attempted by many breeders. In this cross we would like to repeat this classical combination to discover something that is not existing yet in the traditional crystallinum × besseae aff. cross. Anyhow, It marked a special milestone: the plant we had once selected from hundreds of seedlings was now contributing to a new generation of our own.

As said in this pairing, crystallinum (‘black’ × ‘red’) was the seed parent and Fledermaus supplied the pollen.

We chose this combination to explore how the colour expression of the black-and-red crystallinum background might interact with Fledermaus’s distinctive outline and venation. We wanted to follow more than the colour of a newly emerging leaf: the shape of leaves it develops, the movement along its margins and the contrast that remains as it hardens all matter to us.

A first look at selected offspring

The photographs below show a few selected offspring from this first successful cross. Already, there is much to watch: elongated leaves, prominent veins and variation in the upper lobes and leaf margins. Seeing these features take shape in a new generation makes the breeding work tangible. In particular, the conclusion is almost straightforward - The characteristics of Fledermaus is prominently carried into the offspring,  including the flat-sinus, ruffled leaves and vein patterns, which makes the breeding outcome very exiting and encouraging for us. In particular, in this cross the seed mother seems being able to bring deeply dark brownish tones to the leaves, which reinforce the dark velvety coming from Fledermaus. Of course, some of the offspring's look is inclined towards seed mother, with significant round leaf and red crystallinum alike. These are still developing plants. Their current appearance gives us reasons to keep observing, rather than a final verdict on their mature form.

For us, this cross is the first opportunity to follow Fledermaus’s potential beyond the original plant and experimentally prove that the Fledermaus's traits are genetically inherited in the offspring, in spite of the strong influence of the seed mother. We are watching which characteristics recur among its offspring, how they combine with the seed parent’s traits, and which individuals develop a new characteristics of their own.

What we look for as the seedlings grow

In these offspring, we return to the features that first drew us to Fledermaus: the upper leaf outline, ruffled margins, bold radiating veins and dark surface. We also watch how these features develop together and which individuals develop new characteristics beyond their parent plants as the plants gain size.

That means comparing successive leaves, not selecting solely from a first impression. We want to see which characteristics repeat, which strengthen with maturity, and which are accompanied by healthy, vigorous growth.

A feature repeating on the parent is encouraging, but it does not by itself show how that feature will pass to offspring. Growing and comparing the offspring is part of finding out. Nor do we expect the seedlings to be copies of Fledermaus: each is a new individual, and the combinations we have not anticipated may prove especially valuable.

Further crosses, a separate chapter

Following this first success, our dedicated Fledermaus breeding line also includes its pairing with other flat-sinus anthurium, such as pap RL OG × Anthurium besseae aff. ‘Fledermaus’ and Rio wild hybrid × Anthurium besseae aff. ‘Fledermaus’ and a few other unannounced crosses. Each pairing gives us a different background in which to explore its potential. We will introduce these follow-up crosses and the questions behind them in a separate blog.

The next chapter takes time

Many of you have been asking when we will release the Fledermaus hybrids. Our intention is to let the offspring reach a size at which meaningful selection is possible. Plants chosen for release should show the qualities we are working toward, while a few promising individuals will remain with us to help shape the next generation.

This is why a breeding project moves at the pace of its plants. A cross gives us possibilities; growing, observing and selecting tell us which possibilities are worth pursuing.

Fledermaus began as one seedling among hundreds. Today, its first hybrid offspring are opening the next chapter of that story—and giving us a reason to keep looking closely at every new leaf.

Dr. Yichao Liu, Secret Foliage
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