Scindapsus Halimoon
A Name in the Mist
We've been growing and propagating Halimoon for quite some time, and one thing has always fascinated us: no two seem to express themselves quite the same way.
But recently another question came up. Where did the name Halimoon actually come from?
So we went looking.
One trail leads to the Sundanese word halimun, meaning fog or mist. There is also Gunung Halimun, or Mount Halimun, in West Java, Indonesia. And this is where it gets interesting: Scindapsus pictus has actually been recorded in the flora of the Halimun area.
At first, that seems to tie everything together rather neatly. Halimun. Mount Halimun. Scindapsus pictus. Halimoon.
But does that mean the Halimoon we grow today actually came from Mount Halimun?
We don't know.
We couldn't find an original collection record connecting cultivated Halimoon directly to the mountain, nor could we find who first gave it the name. Even the spelling varies in horticulture between Halimoon and Halimun.
There is another possibility too. Whoever first used the name may simply have looked at the plant and thought of mist. Some Halimoons carry soft silvering, hazy washes and muted transitions that can easily bring that image to mind. Since halimun itself means fog or mist, the name may have been inspired by the plant's expression rather than by where it came from. We don't know that either, but it is worth considering.
So for now, we would rather leave the question open than turn a very interesting possibility into a fact we cannot prove.
What we do know very well is the plant growing in front of us.
We've shared many of the different Halimoon expressions we've observed in our Grove over time. As we continue propagating them, they continue to surprise us. Some lean heavily into silver. Others show smoky greens, teal tones, pale washes, mottling, warmer aureate colour, sectors, or combinations that can change again with the next leaf.
If you're curious to see some of those differences for yourself, our Variegated Greens Facebook Group holds many examples of Halimoon expressions we have cultivated in our Grove over time. Once you're on the Group page, look near the top of the page for the Featured tab, alongside the other Group tabs. That's where you can easily find some of the different Halimoon expressions we've shared. Some have already moved on to new homes, while others are still developing here. Together, they show just how differently Halimoon can present itself from one plant to another.
Variegated Greens Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/19TfD9SaEm/
This is also why we give our individual releases expression names. We are not naming new cultivars. We are simply giving a name to what we observe in that particular plant at that point in its development. And we deliberately place those names in double quotation marks. When you see a name such as “Silver Sonata” or “Mineral Wash” from Variegated Greens, the quotation marks are there to tell you that it is our observational expression name—not a claim that the plant is a separate cultivar.
And we'll continue doing that as new propagations develop and show us something worth observing.
Maybe that's what keeps Halimoon so interesting for us. You can know its name and still not know exactly what the next plant—or even the next leaf—is going to show you.
And as for where the name itself truly began?
That part is still in the mist.
— Mandy Vasquez
Owner, Variegated Greens