ISI 2018-22. Haworthia ‘Snow Ball’ R. Wong

This is a choice new cultivar bred and selected in southern California by master breeder and grower Renny Wong. Her work builds on earlier hybridization and selections made mostly in Japan, which she visits regularly in search of new selections worth introducing, or using as breeding stock. ‘Snow Ball’ is reminiscent of some Japanese cultivars, like ‘Kegani’, distinguished by densely papillate leaf surfaces, but here achieves a new level. The leaves of ‘Snow Ball’ are covered with what appear to be white papillae. Under magnification these are bent to one side, mostly pointing toward the leaf bases. They are white at the base, but become transparent toward the pointed apex as if blown from clear glass. When grown hard these papillae can almost completely cover the dark ground from which they emerge, and the leaves become more recurved, giving the rosettes an almost ball-like shape, which inspired the cultivar name. According to Renny, this was a seedling from H. ‘Christmas Light’ (a hybrid of H. emelyae var. major) crossed with H. pygmaea ‘HPG-1’ (a Japanese selection). We offer plants from tissue culture of HBG 122886, $20.