Will the Real Bahorok Please Take the Stand?
Following the Name Scindapsus Bahorok
All rise.
The Variegated Greens Court of Horticultural Names is now in session.
Today's witness:
Scindapsus Bahorok.
Bahorok, you've been called a trade name.
You've been called Exotica.
You've been associated with Sumatra.
Someone even says you were found in the interior forests there.
That's quite a résumé.
There's just one small problem.
We're going to need to see the legal paperwork.
Preferably signed.
Stamped.
Notarized.
And since we've already gone this far, perhaps bearing the seal of approval of a judge.
Exhibit A: Bahorok is real.
This part isn't particularly mysterious.
Bahorok is the name of an actual district in Langkat Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
So when we see a Scindapsus circulating under the horticultural name Bahorok, a perfectly reasonable question arises:
Was the plant named after that place?
Perhaps.
But the court would like to remind everyone that reasonable is not the same thing as proven.
Exhibit B: The witnesses don't quite tell the same story.
Look around the horticultural trade and you'll find the plant presented in different ways.
One specialist seller lists it simply as:
Scindapsus Bahorok
and identifies Bahorok as its trade name.
Another presents it as:
Scindapsus Exotica ‘Bahorok’ sp. Sumatera
and says the plant was found in the interior forests of Sumatra.
Elsewhere, you'll simply encounter:
Scindapsus Bahorok.
Same defendant.
Different testimony.
Now, those descriptions aren't necessarily incompatible.
A plant could carry a trade name, resemble or be associated horticulturally with Exotica, and have originated somewhere in Sumatra.
All of those things could potentially be true.
But could be true is doing some important work there.
So we called for the paperwork.
Who first collected this plant?
Where exactly was it collected?
Who first introduced it into horticulture?
Who gave it the name Bahorok?
Was the name actually chosen because of the Bahorok district?
And where is the original record connecting all of those dots?
We went looking.
What we found were claims.
What we have not yet found is the primary documentation that would allow us to confidently turn those claims into historical fact.
No original collection record that we've been able to verify.
No documented introduction we've been able to trace to the beginning.
No original namer explaining:
“I called this plant Bahorok because...”
At this point, counsel for the defence may relax.
We're not saying the stories are wrong.
We're saying something much simpler:
we don't know.
And that's an important distinction.
Plant names travel remarkably well.
Their documentation sometimes doesn't.
A seller receives a plant under a name.
The plant gets propagated.
Someone else buys it.
Another seller lists it.
The name travels from nursery to collector to nursery, perhaps across several countries.
Eventually everybody recognizes the name.
And somewhere along that journey, a story about the name may travel with it.
After enough repetition, that story can begin to sound like established history.
But repetition isn't documentation.
And popularity isn't provenance.
The court therefore has a ruling.
Is Bahorok a real place in North Sumatra?
Yes.
Is a plant circulating horticulturally as Scindapsus Bahorok?
Absolutely.
Does the geographical name make it plausible that the plant's horticultural name could somehow be connected with Bahorok?
Certainly.
Can Variegated Greens currently prove who named the plant, precisely where the original plant came from, or why the name Bahorok was chosen?
No.
And that's where we're stopping.
Not because the commonly repeated story is necessarily false.
But because “we haven't proved it” and “it isn't true” are two completely different statements.
That's a distinction worth protecting.
Case dismissed?
Not quite.
We're leaving the file open.
Somewhere there may be an old nursery catalogue.
A collector's record.
An original photograph.
A dated introduction.
Or perhaps somebody who was actually there when the name began circulating.
If that evidence eventually appears, we'll happily invite Bahorok back into court.
Until then, the witnesses may continue telling their stories.
We'll continue listening.
But before Variegated Greens calls any one of those stories a fact...
we're still going to need the legal paperwork.
Signed, stamped, preferably notarized—
and yes, Your Honour, we're still waiting for that seal.
Court adjourned.
— Mandy Vasquez
Owner, Variegated Greens